DON’T TURN COVID-19 INTO MATTER OF POLITICS: PM MODI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met the floor leaders of all parties in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to inform them about the trajectory of Covid-19 in the country and the public health response to the pandemic. He said that the pandemic should not be a “matter of politics and is a matter of concern for the entire humanity”.

“PM informed leaders about the rising speed of India’s vaccination program and how the first 10 crore doses took around 85 days while the last 10 crore doses took 24 days. He also informed the leaders that the daily closing stocks show an average of more than 1.5 crore vaccines at the end of the day throughout the country,” the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs said in a statement.

PM Modi said that the vaccination drives at the district level should be properly planned on the basis of availability indicated by the Centre to ensure there is no inconvenience to people. He expressed concerns that a large number of healthcare and frontline workers had not been vaccinated.

Leaders of several Opposition parties including Trinamool Congress, NCP, BJD and BSP attended the meeting convened by the government on Tuesday evening. However, the Congress, RJD, AAP, SAD and Left parties chose not to participate.

Leaders of the BJD and the Shiv Sena, who spoke to ANI, expressed satisfaction with the meeting. Prasanna Acharya of BJD said the meeting was “very fruitful”.

“The Union Health Secretary gave us a half-an-hour presentation on COVID and what the government is doing. We were briefed about what steps are being taken. We were also briefed about the vaccination programme,” he said.

Acharya said Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the leaders and told them that despite the size of the country’s population, the vaccination drive was better than several other countries. “The Prime Minister also said that we have to fight this pandemic with cooperation and coordination with states and the Central government will extend all help to states,” the BJD MP said.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut told ANI that the government gave them details about what it is doing to fight the pandemic. “I can say that it was a satisfactory presentation of the Health Secretary,” he said.

Sources said TMC leaders talked about “vaccine shortage” and gave a letter to the Prime Minister demanding more vaccines for West Bengal “because it’s a vast state and third wave of Covid-19 has set in”.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Parliamentary Affair Minister Prahlad Joshi, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goel and Minorities Affairs Minister M.A. Naqvi were present in the meeting.

Floor leaders of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Tamil Manila Congress, All India Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal (Secular), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Janata Dal (United), Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) were among those present.

WITH ANI INPUTS