Goemkarponn desk
Aam Aadmi Party has hit out again at the BJP Govt for continuing to make hollow announcements and empty assurances with the sole aim of managing critical headlines about its covid handling failures.
Attacking the CM Pramod Sawant over the vaccine issue, State Convenor Rahul Mhambre said Sawant is following the “Khattar Model” in Goa, referring to the outrageous suggestion by Haryana CM Manohar Khattar that fewer vaccines should be administered daily to make vaccine stocks last longer. Mhambre said this rationing of vaccines, as well as the deliberate extension of the gap between two doses to 12 weeks, was being to done only to hide the colossal failure of the BJP Govts at both Centre and State to procure vaccines in sufficient quantities.
“Goa is a state that could have been completely vaccinated with both doses within 3 months. But instead, Sawant is making lakhs of Goan youth fight over a few hundred slots on the CoWin portal every week. All our ministers and MLAs, however, have been fully vaccinated with both doses even though most of them are only sitting at home and are not to be seen”, Mhambre mocked.
Mhambre also criticised Sawant over his recent announcement that everyone over 18 would be vaccinated by June 30th.
“Even if the CM meets this target, it is just the first dose. What about the second dose? We have seen in Goa itself that almost 10-20% of recent covid deaths are of those vaccinated with single dose. It is established that only two doses provide full protection, but Sawant is only interested in making announcements to deflect criticism and polish his own image”, Mhambre charged.
On the issue of extension of covid restrictions, Mhambre said that the BJP Govt has continued to ignore AAP’s repeated demands for financial relief to various sections of people. Mhambre said the situation is getting worse, and revealed that more and more people are approaching AAP volunteers for basic relief such as food and groceries.
“Extending the lockdown is the easiest decision. But only an insensitive and anti-people CM like Sawant can continue to ignore the economic effects of this decision on the common man for so long. People have not even received money of the much-touted welfare schemes in many months, but I have no doubt that CM will soon provide crores in relief to his casino friends shortly”, Mhambre said.
Observing that Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has not been seen on the ground in past two weeks except for a couple of photo-ops, Mhambre said the CM is so focussed on headline management that he has sidelined even the Health Minister in the middle of the pandemic, as their internal tussle was embarrassing the Govt.
