Ever since health experts expressed concerns over the havoc a possible third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic may prompt, government-run vaccination centres in West Bengal have been witnessing chaotic scenes regularly with panic-stricken people scrambling to get jabs.
In most of these facilities, eligible people have been queuing up much before the break of dawn, often to be informed later that no vaccines are left as the daily quota has run out.
The situation turned grim on Tuesday when a stampede occurred at a vaccination centre in Jalpaiguri district, leaving more than 20 people injured. The incident took place at a school, where the inoculation process was going on, in the Dhupguri block of Jalpaiguri.
Hundreds of people had gathered since early morning, and when the police opened the gates at around 10am, the crowd rushed in and in the mêlée, several women, children and elderly people fell to the ground.
BJP leader Amit Malviya tweeted, “In Bengal, a stampede ensued at a vaccination center in Banarhat Block, Shalbari #1 Gram Panchayat, where the gates broke down and several people were badly injured. Mamata Banerjee, the unelected CM, is also the Home, Health Minister of Bengal and responsible for this tragedy.”
The West Bengal chief minister has on several occasions blamed the Centre for the problems, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government of being biased while releasing vaccines.
On July 15, Mamata even wrote a letter to the PM, requesting him to increase the supply of Covid-19 vaccines before the third wave sets in.
She said in the letter that due to the irregular supply of doses, it had become difficult for her to plan vaccination for all at the earliest.
As per data released in August, the state began vaccination from January 16 and until July had administered 2.5 crore shots (with 1.81 crore of first doses and 0.70 crore as second doses) with the supply of 2.12 crore doses from the Centre, 18 lakhs procured by the Bengal government and the rest by the private sector.
The chief minister has said that the state needs around 11.5 crore more doses of Covid-19 vaccine to cover everyone in the eligible categories and, going by the current level of supply, it may take a long time.
However, opposition party leaders blamed the ruling Trinamool Congress for mismanagement, which they said is leading to pandemonium at most government-run vaccination centres in the state.
Speaking to News18, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said, “The allegations levelled by Mamata Banerjee that the Centre is not sending an adequate number of vaccines to West Bengal is false and baseless. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of complete vaccination of all the eligible persons in India by December this year and accordingly the central government is providing vaccines to all the states. The chaotic situation in all the vaccination centres is due to politicisation and poor management of the inoculation drive by Mamata Banerjee. People are in the dark about when and how they will get vaccination. They don’t even know how many vaccines will be given in a particular vaccination centre run by the state government.”
Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya blamed politicisation of the vaccination drive for the disorder at vaccination centres.
“The entire state administration is helpless and finding it difficult to work freely under TMC rule,” he said. “Both the BJP and the TMC are politicising the vaccination process. Instead of vaccinating the people, both parties are busy in taking credit. I will write a letter to Mamata Banerjee, requesting her to allow the bureaucrats to work fearlessly and honestly.”
When contacted, CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said, “There is no doubt about the shortage of vaccines, but it is unfortunate that instead of the state health department, the panchayat and the TMC party offices are managing the vaccination drive. Whatever vaccines we are getting from the Centre, the TMC cadres are handling it for their political interest. They are intentionally creating chaotic situations to get political mileage. They are doing it to take the credit. This must stop immediately.”
TMC MLA Atin Ghosh rubbished the allegations and said that the vaccination drive is already streamlined and more initiatives will be taken to make the entire process flawless. “We have taken a lot of steps (for smooth execution of the vaccination drive) and it cannot be explained in a few words,” he added.
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