Covid vaccines to be administered free of cost in Bengal, declares Mamata

Earlier in the day, she shredded the Centre over its pricing policy for Covid-19 vaccines.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee during an election campaign at Habibpur, Malda.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday announced that her government will give Covid vaccines free of cost to every person of the state.

Speaking at a rally in Tapan, South Dinajpur, she said from May 5, all eligible people in Bengal can avail the vaccines free of cost.

Earlier in the day, she shredded the Centre over its pricing policy for Covid-19 vaccines.

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The CM tweeted, “One nation, one party, one leader shouts BJP all the time but to save lives they can’t have one price for vaccine. Every Indian needs free vaccine, regardless of age, caste, creed and location. GoI must fix ONE price for Covid vaccine irrespective of who pays— Centre or the States.”

One nation, one party, one leader shouts BJP all the time but to save lives they can’t have one price for vaccine.

Every Indian needs free vaccine, regardless of age, caste, creed, location. GoI must fix ONE price for Covid vaccine irrespective of who pays— Centre or the States.

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) April 22, 2021

Serum Institute of India (SII) Wednesday announced that it will sell its vaccine, Covishield, at ₹400 to state governments and at ₹600 to private hospitals in the country.

Banerjee Thursday also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to set a uniform price for the vaccine.

Atri Mitra

Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal. Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur. He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More

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