Top leaders of twelve opposition parties including Sonia Gandhi of Congress and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put across nine demands including a free Covid-19 vaccination campaign.
 
They also asked PM Modi to halt the Central Vista project and instead divert the money to buy oxygen and vaccines.
 
In the letter, the leaders argued that they have “repeatedly in the past” drawn the PM’s attention to the measures, they think, are “absolutely imperative” for the Central government to undertake and implement.”
 
“Unfortunately, your government has either ignored or refused all these suggestions.
 
This only compounded the situation to reach such an apocalyptic human tragedy,” the letter read.
 
The letter, signed by former PM HD Deve Gowda, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, CPIM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and also signed by NCP leader Sharad Pawar, JKPA leader Farooq Abdullah, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, CPI’s D Raja and Tejaswi Yadav of RJD.
 
“Procure vaccines centrally from all available sources – global and domestic” and “immediately begin a free, universal mass vaccination campaign across the country. Invoke compulsory licensing to expand domestic vaccine production.
 
Spend budgetary allocation of Rs. 35,000 crores for the vaccines.”
 
12 parties opposition letter asked for stopping the Central Vista construction and demanded that all money held in the unaccounted private trust fund, PM Cares must be released to buy more vaccines, Oxygen and medical equipment required.
 
The letter reiterated that all jobless people should be given at least ₹6000 per month and there must be free distribution of food grains to the needy as over one crore tonnes of food grains are currently rotting in central godowns.
 
The letter, however, also ask the PM Modi to invoke the farm law issues and reiterated that the three farm laws have to be repealed to “protect lakhs of our annadatas becoming victims of the pandemic so that they can continue to produce food to feed the Indian people.”