In April this year Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren had announced the Jharkhand government would launch a vaccination drive to vaccinate every eligible person in the state at the state’s expense.
Many ‘friendly journalists’ lauded the announcement saying this is how it should be done.
Fast forward to June 1.
Chief Minister Soren has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking for free vaccines as the state could not afford to because of scarcity of resources.
He has written, “The financial burden on the State for vaccination of the age cohort of 18-44 years is likely to be more than Rs 1100 crores…It will be extremely difficult to spare as much resources from the resource pool of the State which is already stressed during Covid times.”
He further adds, “…It is requested to provide to the State free vaccine for beneficiaries of all age groups …”
The letter has not explained on what basis did he make the announcement in April explicitly saying all eligible would be vaccinated at the state’s expense.
