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While addressing the nation on Monday, 7 June, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced centralisation of the COVID-19 vaccine drive and said that all vaccines will be procured by the Centre and given to the states for free. Everybody above the age of 18 years will be vaccinated for free by the Centre from 21 June, he added.
Reacting to the development, several pointed out that the said reversal came days after the Centre was lambasted by the Supreme Court over the “various flaws” in its inoculation drive and the Centre being pulled up for letting the states procure vaccines and leaving them “in the lurch”.
Soon after, government sources told news agency ANI that the plan for centralised and free vaccination was “presented to PM Modi on 1 June, on the completion of one month of the decentralised model” and that the PM has given “in-principle approval” to the same date.
The same statement was shared by several journalists, quoting sources. Among those who shared it included: Megha Prasad, Vikas Bhadauria, Aman Sharma and Akhilesh Sharma.
Times Now Group Editor Navika Kumar also tweeted the same drawing a direct link between the change in the policy and SC hearing questioning the Opposition for crediting SC for the change in the policy.
But the order was dictated on 31 May by the Supreme Court of India, a day before the said presentation was made. Further, this wasn’t the only time when the SC had pulled up the Centre. In another order passed on 30 April, SC had questioned the government’s vaccination policy.
Let’s take a look at both the orders.
The Supreme Court on 31 May, rapped the Centre for its policy of dual pricing for COVID-19 vaccination and questioned the rationale behind letting states and even civic bodies compete with each other for getting vaccines from private manufactures via global tenders.
The observations were made by a three-judge Bench, comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, L Nageswara Rao, and S Ravindra Bhat, while hearing the suo moto case on the COVID-19 crisis.
However, this is not the first time that the court questioned the Centre’s vaccination policy. In its 30 April hearing, the court mentioned about “centralisation of the procurement” of vaccines and “decentralisation” of the distribution.
The order, which was dictated on 31 May was expected to be published on the same day but on 1 June, that there was a delay in uploading the order and had said that 95 percent of the cases before the vacation bench were “frivolous” and that time could have been spent on more important issues.
The official Supreme Court order mentions that the prima facie observations were “decided on 31 May”, however, it was uploaded on 2 June wherein the apex court termed the Centre’s “Liberalised Vaccination Policy” as “arbitrary and irrational”, as it did not provide free vaccination for those in the age group of 18 to 44 years.
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