The Union government has refuted Maharashtra government’s claim that it does not receive advance information with regard to delivery schedule and number of vaccines which are allocated to the state.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh informed the Bombay high court on Monday that they provide vaccines to the states as per the schedule prepared in advance. “State had complained about the deliveries schedule, but we deliver vaccines in advance. There have been instances where we (Central government) have even provided more number of vaccines than specified in the schedule,” said Singh.
Geeta Shastri, counsel for the State government, said that they receive Covishield as per the schedule, however, there are delays in receiving Covaxin.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni is hearing a public interest litigation, filed by Yogeeta Vanzara through advocate Rajesh Vanzara, seeking the court's intervention in the issues concerning the booking of vaccination slots on the CoWin vaccination portal. The BMC should open the booking slots for a week but are doing it on a daily basis.
Jamsheed Master, Vanzara’s counsel, argued that there had been no vaccination drive in the city since last three days. “No vaccination has been done in the government/ BMC run centers in the city in the last three days. However, vaccines are available in private hospitals,” said Master.
Anil Sakhare, counsel for the BMC, said that 63,40,138 persons had received their first jabs and 21,61,939 persons were fully vaccinated in the city as on August 22.
Giving details of the persons who fell victim to fake vaccination scam, Sakhare said that they are in contact with the central government with regard to updating their vaccine certificates.
Singh said that they are in the process of deleting their certificates which gave details of their fake vaccines, so that fresh certificates can be generated once they get their jabs.
Earlier, the state government had filed an affidavit stating that it was “not convenient to open weekly slots due to irregular supply of vaccines” as the government of India was not regular in terms of date and time and number of vaccines.
In reply, the Central government said that it gives advance information to all the states and Union Territories (UTs) so that they (respective states and UTs) can prepare district-wise and CVC-wise plan for acceleration of vaccination coverage. The Union government also provided a list giving detailed breakup of the number of doses that would be allocated to Maharashtra between the period - August 4 to September 2, of Covishield and Covaxin. The central government also provided a list giving detailed breakup of the number of doses that would be allocated to Maharashtra between the period - August 4 to September 2, of Covishield and Covaxin.
The HC has asked the Union government to file a detailed affidavit and kept the PIL for hearing on August 30.
