Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot urges Centre to check dumping of bodies in rivers; state may move SC for vaccines

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has urged the Union government to issue Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) under the Coronavirus protocol on the issue of floating dead bodies of COVID victims in rivers like the Ganga and Yamuna.

Gehlot said that people are either cremating the COVID victims on the banks of Ganga and Yamuna or are burying them on the banks of these rivers. He said both Ganga and Yamuna are pious rivers and people worship these rivers as the water from these rivers is considered pure in mythological terms.

Gehlot said the Union government has not taken any cognizance of the issue even after it was raised in the media.

“The floating bodies after getting decomposed would spread diseases and during the monsoon, such decaying process would further aggravate and would lead to spread of COVID,” he said.

Gehlot also attacked Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan through social media, urging him not to issue misleading statements on the availability of vaccines.

Gehlot pointed out that when the country was facing oxygen shortage for COVID patients, the Health Minister would issue categorical statements that there was no dearth of oxygen in the country. Now the Health Minister is claiming that there were adequate stocks of vaccines in the country, Gehlot said.

He said that the Health Minister has claimed that there were one crore vaccines available in the country. “But in a large country like India, with a population of 130 crore, one crore vaccines would hardly be enough even for a single day,” he said.

Gehlot said that on April 2, 42 lakh vaccinations were done, but because of the paucity of vaccines, the number has come down to 16 lakh per day.

Meanwhile, the Rajasthan government’s efforts to procure COVID vaccines through a global tender have failed. It is learned that seven other states including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana which too adopted the global tender mode, have found that it has many ifs and buts and is not workable.

The few bids that the state government received after floating the global tender quoted exorbitant rates that the state is unable to afford.

The state government needs more than two crore vaccines for the age group of 18 to 44. This age group will be given vaccination free of cost.

The state government is now likely to file a petition in the Supreme Court seeking its intervention to give directives to the Union government to float a global tender for vaccines on its behalf

The state will insist that as the Union of India is a federal structure and the states are its components, the Union government should float a global tender in the best interest of the states.

Rajasthan Health Minister Dr Raghu Sharma said that whenever a state floats a global tender, it is the duty of the Indian missions abroad to verify the credentials of a bidding company and report it back to the state. He said the Rajasthan government will move the Supreme Court to issue directives looking at the special circumstances.

Dr Sharma revealed that the state had floated a global tender for procurement of one crore of vaccines. He said firms like AstraZeneca, Sputnik, ReiThera who either manufacture vaccines or distribute it participated in the global tender. The last date of bidding was May 20

He said that these companies quoted exorbitant rates which are three to four times more than the prevailing rates. Moreover, these companies are not in a position to deliver one crore vaccines in 30 days, he added.