Fadnavis urges Centre to allow HA to manufacture Covid vaccine, PCMC ready to provide financial help

Over a month ago, Hindustan Antibiotics had sought permission from the central government to produce a Covid-19 vaccine. As for which vaccine would be produced, a company spokesperson had said the government will take a decision in this regard.

Devendra Fadnavis

EVEN as the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has agreed to provide financial assistance to Hindustan Antibiotics (HA) Ltd, Pimpri, to manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has taken up the issue with the central government.

Over a month ago, HA had sought permission from the central government to produce a Covid-19 vaccine. As for which vaccine would be produced, a company spokesperson had said the government will take a decision in this regard.

“We had taken up the issue of manufacture of Covid vaccine by HA with our leader Devendra Fadnavis. He spoke to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan…The former CM has told us that the Health Ministry is considering the proposal positively and will soon allow HA to manufacture the vaccine,” BJP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad unit president and MLA Mahesh Landge told The Indian Express on Tuesday.Landge said Fadnavis has promised him that he will keep pursuing the issue with the Centre till permission is given to Hindustan Antibiotics. “Since our leader is going to pursue the issue, now we are confident that HA will get permission and vaccine manufacturing will get underway,” he said.

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On Monday, PCMC officials and BJP leaders discussed various issues pertaining to tackling the infection as well as manufacturing of Covid vaccine by HA. Landge said HA has sought Rs 12 crore in financial assistance from PCMC. “We have told HA that we will provide the money but it should sign an agreement with the PCMC to the effect that the vaccine manufactured will be first given to PCMC for its residents. Only after residents of Pimpri-Chinchwad are fully vaccinated, the vaccine can be distributed in other cities,” he said.

Landge said since manufacturing companies are not keen on supplying vaccines directly to the state government or civic bodies, HA restarting full-fledged production will not only make Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune free of Covid but will also be a positive move for the local industrial sector. “With HA’s fate remaining uncertain for long, it has affected the industrial scenario in Pune. If HA starts operations again, it will a major shot in the arm for the sector,” he said.

Municipal Commissioner Rajesh Patil said the PCMC was ready to help HA manufacture the Covid vaccine.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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