No Vaccines For Rural Telangana: Uttam Kumar Reddy

Former TPCC head and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy today faulted the Telangana government for not addressing the slow vaccination rate in the state, particularly in its rural pockets.

Speaking at a general body meeting of the Nalgonda Mandal Praja Parishad, he said, "There is a need to speed up the Covid-19 vaccination drive in Telangana so that the target of immunising all the adults in the state by December 31 can be achieved and the third wave can be prevented. I will raise the issue in Parliament."

Addressing the media after the meeting, Reddy stated that the current inoculation rate was "unacceptably slow" in rural Telangana.

"Only 10% of a population of 65,000 in Nalgonda mandal have received both doses so far. The doctors of the mandal have informed me that the vaccine doses are not arriving every day. Only 100 to 200 doses are given whenever stocks reach the local hospital. With such meagre supplies and slow rates of vaccination, how can we even hope to vaccinate all adults by December 31?" he asked.

The leader also spoke about the troubles being faced by students of the rural areas in the state, saying that they were having to contend with many issues in attending online classes.

"Students from poor families are being unable to attend online lessons due to the lack of the required infrastructure. How can a poor Dalit family, for instance, provide laptops, iPads or smart phones to its children? Thus, scores of children are suffering due to the present online education system. The Centre and the TRS government have not taken any steps to provide the support needed by the students of rural areas. I will definitely raise this matter in Parliament," he added.

The MP then claimed that the only solution to address the students' problem was to vaccinate them immediately and to reopen the schools as soon as possible.

Lamenting the absence of any crop insurance schemes in the state, he said that it was unfortunate that the TRS government was the only government in the country that was not implementing any crop insurance schemes for its farmers. He also criticised the government for "abandoning" the farmers in the face of heavy rains, floods, or other natural calamities.