MARGAO
As the State government’s 4-day Tika Utsav rolls out in Margao, beginning Monday, both the BJP and the Congress seemed to be bracing up for one-upmanship over the question of mobilizing Madgavkars for the vaccination.
If the BJP had been on the job to get people out of their homes during the next four days for vaccination, Margao MLA and Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat said he is taking personal interest in mobilising 45-plus citizens from Margao to take the first dose of vaccine commencing in the city from Monday.
BJP general secretary Naveen Raikar said the party has mobilised its cadre to bring out people for the four-day vaccination programme and ensure that maximum number of Madgavkars get the dose.
In fact, Naveen claimed that the party has managed to register with its system around 200 citizens who have expressed their willingness to take the anti-Covid jab in the city. “We have appointed around four persons at each of the four vaccination centres in the city to ensure that they monitor the situation”, Naveen said.
Opposition leader Digambar Kamat, on the other hand, in a statement on Sunday said all the councillors of Model Margao panel and his hard working workers will mobilise people to get inoculated.
In fact, Digambar urged the government to ensure that enough stock of vaccines is made available and the drive is carried for the full day.
While issuing an appeal to the citizens of Margao who are entitled to take the first dose of vaccination to get inoculated, Digambar said “our volunteers will always be ready to assist the citizens in case they need transport or any other help to reach to the vaccination centre”.
He added: “The repeated contradictory statements on vaccination gaps, lack of clarity on whether Covid-recovered patients can take vaccines, etc were deliberately floated by the BJP to buy time to get stock of vaccines. The BJP government woke up only after the second wave hit the nation very badly”.
Blaming the BJP governments at the Centre as well as the State over its failure to convince the people to take anti-Covid vaccination, Digambar said the government has itself created confusion in the minds of the people, the Opposition leader charged.
He strongly condemned Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s statement, blaming local panchayats as well as the elected representatives for slow response to vaccination drive in Goa. It is the administrative failure of the BJP government which has resulted in complete chaos in Covid management, he added.
