Black marketeering of vaccine brings shame to Punjab: Chugh 

Chandigarh: BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh slammed the Amarinder Singh government for  commercialising the sale of Covid vaccine at a time when Punjab had recorded the highest Covid mortality rate in the country.

In a statement here today he said that a criminal case needed to be registered against all those involved in the vaccine scam under which the vaccine provided by the Centre for poor working class was sold on commercial rates to the private hospitals who, in turn, made huge money out of it at the cost of poor and the needy people.

He said out of 1.14 lakh Covaxin doses Punjab received last month at the cost of Rs 420 per dose the state government sold 40,000 of them to over 20 private hospitals for Rs 1060 per dose and the private hospitals in turn sold it for Rs 1560 per dose.

Chugh said it was pure black marketeering by the state government of the vaccine for which it should be held accountable. "All this has been happening when Punjab last month recorded 2.7 Covid death rate which is among the highest in the country", he said and demanded the Centre to take action against the state government.

At a time when pandemic was spreading wildly in the state the Congress ministers and MLAs have been indulging in merry making in Delhi trying to resolve infighting.

Chugh demanded that the chief minister should seek a fresh vote of confidence in the Assembly as he had lost the majority in the House.

"It is shameful that when Punjab was suffering the worst in the country due to Covid the ruling party ministers and MLAs are busy settling personal scores", Chugh said adding that the Punjab government functioning has completely collapsed and it is time for the Governor to intervene and save the state from destruction.