Pics: Spoorthi Ullal

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jun 2: MLC and Dakshina Kannada district Congress president, Harish Kumar, addressed a press conference in the city on Wednesday June 2. He charged the BJP activists of meddling with the vaccination drive.

Kumar recalled that before rising to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had said that after coming to power, he would send all the corrupt people to jail. "However, the way more and more corrupt people are joining the BJP, it is clear that the BJP has turned into a jail for all the corrupt people," he ridiculed.

He further charged the BJP of playing politics in vaccination programme. He also alleged that out of every hundred vaccine vials received in the district, 50 reach the residence of MLA Vedavyasa Kamath. He said that this is meant for distribution among the BJP activists and those close to the MLA.

"There is a scam going on in the distribution of vaccines. BJP workers run the show at the vaccination centre. We demand that the vaccination system should be streamlined in vaccination centres by deploying officials for this purpose. Other than government officials, none else including the BJP workers need to stay at the centres to serve the people. If there is shortage of staff, let the officials on leave be given the work. The authorities are not justified in allowing the BJP workers to function in vaccination centers in the guise of shortage of staff. The officials should act on this issue emergently,” he demanded.

“The BJP is finding fault with the Congress in vaccination bungling. We do not want to allow politics to interfere as far vaccination is concerned. We will take up 'speak up' campaign from June 2 and appeal the Governor through the deputy commissioner to see that everyone gets free vaccination without political interference," he said. He accused the BJP leaders for blaming the Congress for both the dearth of people visiting vaccination centres and again, also when the number of visitors is more.

Former MLA J R Lobo, stated that the BJP is pointing fingers at the Congress to cover up its failures. He said that the government has failed in the matter of vaccination. He reminded the BJP that economic activity and running of the government becomes possible only when the people survive and therefore the focus should be on saving the people.