LS speaker lauds Covid warriors for tackling situation during pandemic
Staff Reporter
A debate on Covid-19 under Rule 193 began in Lok sabha today. Speaker Om Birla said the discussion is timely as there is an emergence of the new variant Omicron. Mr. Birla expressed hope that the discussion will be healthy and constructive. The Speaker also commended MPs who did innovative things to deal with the Pandemic in their respective constituencies and lauded the role of Covid warriors in tackling the global problem.
Initiating the discussion, Vinayak Raut of Shiv Sena thanked the Prime Minister, the Union and State Health Ministers, and all Chief ministers for dealing with the pandemic in an effective manner. He said, even the thickly populated Dharavi of Mumbai which was feared to suffer heavily, took it up as a challenge and showed the world how to fight the pandemic.
However, Mr. Raut pointed out that 60 percent of the ventilators provided under PM CARES funds were not functional and the supplier did not respond to repair and service them despite repeated demands. He remarked that out of the allocated 1500 PSA plants only 363 plants are operational. He demanded that the companies responsible for this too should be punished as they are breaking the trust between government and people.
Mr. Vinayak Bhaurao Raut also demanded reducing the gap in the number of days between administering the first and second doses of the Covishield vaccines so that the coverage of vaccination could be increased. He also favoured imposing travel restrictions for those who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
The Shiv Sena MP also complained of allocating more vaccines to the BJP ruled states as compared to the Opposition ruled states like Maharashtra.