Hitting out at the Punjab government for selling government quota of COVID vaccines to private hospitals, AAP MLA Raghav Chadha said that Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh-led government had committed another major vaccine scam and robbed the people of the state of crores of rupees.
Addressing the media during a press conference convened at the party headquarters here on Friday, Chadha alleged that Captain Amarinder Singh was looting money from the people of Punjab in times of trouble, by making "disaster an opportunity'".
Chadha further said that Punjab government had purchased the state government quota vaccine at the rate of Rs 400 per dose; but it had further embezzled crores of rupees by selling these vaccines to private hospitals at a rate of Rs 1,060 per dose and had allowed private hospitals to plunder the people of Punjab financially.
AAP Punjab affairs co-incharge Chadha then asked the Punjab Chief Minister to answer five questions related to the vaccine scam. "When Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal government could provide free vaccines to the people of Delhi, then why the Congress government in Punjab could not get it done for the people; Why did the Captain government close down government vaccination centers and allow private hospitals to charge Rs 3,100 for vaccines?; Captain Amarinder should tell the people of Punjab that to which Congress leader did he gave crores of rupees collected through black marketing of free medicine; Has the money for the vaccine scam been given to the Congress party high command?" he asked.
By closing down the government vaccination centers, he said the Punjab government had forced people to get vaccinated from private hospitals at a cost of Rs 3,100.
Replying to queries from the media about Punjab Health Minister, Chadha said that when Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu was saying that he had no involvement in the vaccine issue, did Chief Minister commit the vaccine scam?
He demanded that Congress interim national president Sonia Gandhi and party leaders Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and Amarinder Singh should make their position clear to the people and the country regarding the vaccine scam in the Congress-ruled state of Punjab.
Earlier, the Punjab government withdrew its order to provide "one time limited vaccine doses to 18-44 years age group population through private hospitals".In a letter, signed by Vikas Garg, the state-in-charge for vaccination, the state government directed the private hospitals to return all the vaccine doses available with them immediately.
( With inputs from ANI )
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