After Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Madhya Pradesh has also refuted Centre's data on the states wasting COVID-19 vaccines, saying that the central government’s figures are “quite high.”
Madhya Pradesh is the first state with a BJP administration to speak against Centre’s data on vaccine wastage.
After Centre said that MP’s vaccine wastage was 10.7 percent, the state indicated that there could be issues in the data or a communication gap with the Union Health Ministry.
Speaking to reporters, Madhya Pradesh Medical Education Minister Vishwas Sarang said that he had urged state officials communicate with their central counterparts and revisit the data to fix discrepancies.
Sarang said, “According to our calculation, the vaccine wastage is 1.3 percent. The centre’s figure for Madhya Pradesh is quite high. It is possible the actual figures from our end couldn’t be communicated properly to the centre. I have asked our officials to get in touch with officials at the Health Ministry and get the figures corrected,” NDTV quoted.
The health ministry also released the data for vaccine wastage in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, reporting that the states have 37.3 percent and 30.2 percent wastage respectively. Amid an acute vaccine shortage in the country, these figures are elevated.
Health Minister of Chhattisgarh TS Singh Deo as well the Jharkhand minister Banna Gupta have censured the centre for displaying wrong data, with Deo saying that their “intention is not right.”
The ministers have disputed records which show that their states are the biggest vaccine wasters in the country.
"They are calling it vaccine wastage without getting proper data. If centre does not believe us, it can send its own team for a probe. Their intention is not right and these statements are politically motivated," Deo said.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)