Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking free COVID vaccine for the 18-44 age group, saying the state was incapable to incur nearly Rs 1,100 crore on it due to limited resources.
Soren has written to Prime Minister the state was battling a deadly second wave of COVID-19 with its limited resources.
“The financial burden on the state for vaccination of the age group of 18-44 years is likely to be more than Rs 1,100 crore considering 1.57 crore eligible beneficiaries.
“With vaccine being available for age group of 12-18 years and below, the mentioned financial burden will further increase by around Rs 1,000 crore. It will be extremely difficult to spare as much resources from the resource pool of the state which is already stressed during COVID times,” the letter mentioned.
He said the poor supply of vaccines as compared to the state’s requirement is the chief hindrance to the ongoing vaccination drive.