New Delhi: India began Sunday the ‘Tika Utsav’, the aim of which is to inoculate as many people as possible. However, amid the ‘Tika Utsav’ there is the fear of a shortage of vaccines. In the inoculation programme that will run for four days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged that the maximum number of people should be vaccinated. The question however, is how will it open when each and every state has reported closure of vaccination centres.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted a message Sunday on Twitter to mark the ‘Tika Utsav’, or vaccination festival. He also had four requests along with his meesage.
“Today, we are starting the Tika Utsav across the country. In this round of fight against corona, I have four requests…” Modi said. He pasted a link to a release where these requests were listed: “Each One- Vaccinate One, Each One- Treat One, Each One- Save One, and creation of micro-containment zones.”
The prime minister also explained what the requests made. ‘Each One-Vaccinate One’ means helping out old and less educated people who cannot get themselves vaccinated; ‘Each One-Treat One’ means coming to the aid of those who do not have the means to, or do not know about the facilities available, for vaccination; ‘Each One-Save One’ lays emphasis on wearing masks prevent the spread of COVID-19 and help saves lives of the people.
About the fourth request, PM Modi said that people must lead in creation of micro-containment zones. Wherever a Covid-19 positive case has been reported, people of that family and locality must create a micro-containment zone.
“This Tika Utsav is a beginning of second big fight against Covid-19. We have to give special emphasis on personal hygiene as well as social hygiene,” Modi said in his message.
These messages are reiteration of what Modi told chief ministers during a meeting Thursday Covid-19 situation in India. He said that the chief ministers should learn to deal with criticism, but continue the work of vaccinating people and increasing testing.
The problem however, for the ‘Tika Utsav’ to flourish is lack of vaccines. Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi have said that they are running short of Covid-19 vaccines with supplies of two to three days left. The chief ministers of these four states have said that the vaccination festival will not be successful unless adequate quantities of jabs are provided.
Overall, so far more than 10 crore people have been vaccinated in India. Eight states – Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala – account for 60.62 per cent of the doses.
