Mamata slams Modi govt's 'biased attitude' in vax supply

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his 'biased attitude towards some states regarding the supply of Covid vaccines.

The Chief Minister also wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, requesting him to increase the supply of vaccine doses to the state.

"I was listening to the Prime Minister's speech in Varanasi. He has appreciated the Uttar Pradesh government for its successful handling of the Covid situation in the state. I am not against the people of Uttar Pradesh, but I would like to remind the Prime Minister about the bodies that were floating in the Ganges. We recovered eight bodies from our state and I don't know how many were recovered from Bihar," the Chief Minister said.

"I want all the people of the country to be vaccinated, but what this government is doing with vaccines is not correct. The BJP-ruled states are getting more vaccines and the non-BJP states are not getting vaccines. This biased attitude is not expected from the Centre," she added.

Assuring that the state is capable of administering 10 lakh vaccines per day, the Chief Minister said in her letter to the Prime Minister, "We didn't get vaccines for the last seven days. As per our assessment, the state needs around 11.5 crore more doses of Covid 19 vaccine to cover everyone in the eligible categories, and going by the current level of supply, it may take rather a longer period before everyone is covered. So far we have received only 2.12 crore dose."