The Health Ministry said states have been urged to keep vaccine wastage below 1 per cent.

New Delhi:

Chhattisgarh Health Minister T S Singh Deo and his Jharkhand counterpart Banna Gupta today targeted the centre over Health Ministry data that showed that the two states were the biggest vaccine wasters in the country.

At a time when a shortage of vaccine shots has slowed down the immunisation exercise in the country, the Health Ministry Data released yesterday showed that Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have reported 37.3 per cent and 30.2 per cent vaccine wastage, respectively.

Releasing the figures, the ministry said states have been repeatedly urged to keep the wastage below 1 per cent.

Mr Singh Deo alleged that the centre’s “intention is not right”. “The Central government has created a new portal and they are collecting data directly from vaccination centres and not from the state government. There is delay from some vaccination centres in providing data which the Centre is calling vaccine wastage,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

“They are calling it vaccine wastage without getting proper data. If Centre government does not believe us, it can send its own team for probe. Their intention is not right and these statements are politically motivated,” he added.

The Jharkhand Health Minister disputed the data released by the centre and issued districtwise figures that showed that the vaccine wastage in the state is 4.635 per cent, lower than the national average of 6.3 per cent.

In a Twitter post, Mr Gupta alleged that the centre is using “lies” and “deception” to “malign” the Jharkhand government and questioned if the whole country was being “misled” through “fake” data.

Earlier, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren had disputed the numbers put out by the Health Ministry.