India is currently facing a shortage of vaccines, and it has been made clear by the Central government that vaccines have to be purchased by the states. This is a huge burden on the states, and on the people as well, as a lot of people would not be able to afford the prices of the vaccines.
On the other hand, the central government has now announced that it would be giving away 5 KG of rice and other grains free of cost for two months, to whoever is eligible for free ration, throughout the country.
Last year, the Centre introduced this policy under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana scheme and is now looking forward to continuing it. It has also announced that it is spending Twenty Six Thousand Crores in doing this.
While the Centre is boasting about spending that much money on supplying free rations, experts are saying that it would cost the government a total of Fifty Thousand crores to provide two doses of vaccine for all the people of the country, free of cost.
This is now raising a lot of questions, as many are saying that it would be a lot better for the government to spend the money on vaccinating those people who cannot afford to buy the vaccine.
New doses of the Coronavirus vaccine are expected to come in on May 1st, but all the state governments want the Centre to do something before that, as the number of cases in the country is increasing rapidly every day.
Not to say that the government shouldn’t spend money on feeding those in need, but it would be a much better option to vaccinate those in need, instead of feeding them, as ration in all states of the country doesn’t cost more than Rs. 5 per KG, which most can afford.