[BREAKING] Central government policy on Covid vaccination is encouraging black marketing: Kerala govt to Kerala High Court

The Kerala government on Wednesday strongly criticised the COVID-19 vaccination policy put in place by the Central government, alleging that it encourages black marketing and private players and manufacturers are playing with the lives of people amidst the pandemic. .The submissions were made by State attorney KV Sohan before a Bench of Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and Kauser Edappagath. ."The central government is encouraging black marketing. Why are different rates being fixed? Rates must be fixed based on the cost of production. Companies cannot be allowed to play in between the pandemic. How can the private (parties) be allowed to black market? Exorbitant prices being charged," he said. .The submissions were made during the hearing of a case concerning COVID vaccine shortage in the State. .The Bench today asked the Central Government to respond to concerns that the State is unable to procure sufficient COVID-19 vaccines directly from maufacturers on account of competing bids by private players and private hospitals.."The practical difficulty is that Kerala has placed an order of 1 crore vaccines... Private hospitals like Aster, Adlux are making orders. This is not allotment from Centre, this is directly (from the manufacturers)... Under the policy, everyone has to register under COWIN. There are 100 people at the gate. They (a hospital) gave it to their employees ... Only people with purchasing power are able to access vaccines ... States placing orders should be given priority over private players", Advocate Santhosh Mathew submitted..The Court, in turn, observed, "Why can't States be given some priority (over private players) if they are will to pay?".Appearing for the Kerala Medical Services Corporation (KMSCL), Advocate M Ajay added that the State is not only willing to pay but also willing to provide the vaccine for free to those people approaching the State. .He further informed that while the State of Kerala had placed orders for 1 crore vaccines, i.e. 70 lakh COVISHIELD and 30 lakh COVAXIN vaccines, it had only received about 8.84 lakh vaccines. This is because there are private players also approaching the vaccine manufacureres, he submitted. .ASG Raj Kumar urged the Court to grant some time to file a statement on these issues by next week. Accordingly, the Bench adjourned the matter until next Tuesday. .Appearing for a petitioner, Advocate Prasanth Sugathan also pressed for taking steps to transfer the technology for the manufacture of vaccines over which the Indian government holds intellectual property rights. He said that there are 19 manufacturing companies which can be utilised to ramp up the production thus. The Court observed that this a larger issue. .He also raised concern that the new policy appears to be flawed. While the policy was supposed to incentivise vaccination, the numbers have dropped, he argued. .The matter will be taken up next on Tuesday. .[Read a live account of the hearing]