Unable to send Covid vaccines as India needs time to review its legal provisions: US
Washington: The United States on Tuesday said that it is ready to ship its COVID-19 vaccines expeditiously when it has the green light from the Indian government which has told the Americans that it needs further time to review legal provisions related to accepting vaccine donations.
"We are ready to ship those vaccines expeditiously when we have a green light from the Government of India, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference.
The Biden Administration has announced to share 80 million doses from its domestic stockpile with countries around the world, including India. In recent week, the US vaccines have landed in countries across the world, including Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
However, the vaccines to India could not be sent because the Indian government is yet to clear the necessary legal hurdles for such an emergency import.
"Before we can ship those doses, however, each country must complete its own domestic set of operational, of regulatory, and legal processes that are specific to each country. Now, India has determined that it needs further time to review legal provisions related to accepting vaccine donations," Price said.
"Once India works through its legal processes, our donations of vaccines to India will proceed expeditiously. We would need to refer you to the Government of India on the status of its discussions with COVAX, which, in this case, is helping to facilitate that delivery, he said.
"More broadly in the region, throughout South Asia, we're donating millions of vaccines to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Roughly 40 million doses have been delivered worldwide so far, he added.
Responding to another question, Price said that the COVID-19 cooperation between the two countries is built on decades of successful partnership in health and biomedical research.
"We are partnering to strengthen the global response to COVID-19 on issues ranging from addressing infectious disease outbreaks to strengthening health systems to securing global supply chains, he said.
"We recently welcomed an initiative to collaborate through the International Center of Excellence in Research focused on infectious diseases, and in this case that includes COVID-19 and other emerging threats. We look forward to an overarching MOU, a memorandum of understanding, to enhance health cooperation beyond that, he added.
The two countries are further working on diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines to combat the disease and to recognise the importance of manufacturing critical drugs during this time and to making them accessible globally.
"We are able to do that because India's pharmaceutical sector is strong, it's well-established, it has played a central role in manufacturing vaccines for global use over some time. We are pleased that US pharmaceutical companies in turn are coordinating with their Indian counterparts since the beginning of the pandemic, Price said.
"As you know, beyond this partnership, in the context of the Quad leaders' summit, there was an agreement to work with India to boost manufacturing of Covid vaccines that would support a safe and effective and eventually universal distribution of vaccines around the world," he said.
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Houses only for eligible evictees, not encroachers: Dy CM Shivakumar
Bengaluru: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister D K Shivakumar on Tuesday said the state government would not provide houses to encroachers and would rehabilitate only eligible evictees on humanitarian grounds.
Responding to questions on whether housing would be provided to residents evicted during the recent demolition drive at Kogilu in north Bengaluru, Shivakumar said the government would not “gift” anything to those who had illegally occupied government land. He added that strict action would be taken against those who facilitated encroachments.
“There is no appeasement politics. Housing will be provided through the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana only to eligible evictees on humanitarian grounds,” he said.
The Deputy Chief Minister said several evictees had informed officials that they were allowed to set up sheds after paying money to intermediaries. “We will take action against those who collected money and enabled encroachment of government land,” he said.
He added that some evictees had claimed land rights were issued to them in the past. “I have asked officials to verify these claims. Some outsiders have also encroached the land recently. We will identify the original settlers and rehabilitate only genuine beneficiaries,” he said.
Responding to criticism from CPI(M) leaders and MPs from Kerala, Shivakumar said, “We are running our government well. They can make any statement they want, but we will not allow encroachments. The Left government in Kerala, which has not fulfilled promises made to flood victims, has no right to lecture Karnataka.”
Clarifying remarks attributed to him about Kerala, Shivakumar said he had not spoken ill of Keralites. “BJP leader Rajeev Chandrashekhar is twisting my statement and misleading people. I share a good relationship with the people of Kerala. I will campaign in the Kerala elections, and our government will come to power there,” he said.
He also said local body elections would be held next year and that the state’s guarantee schemes would continue.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje and other BJP leaders accused the Congress government of providing houses to “illegal immigrants” evicted from government land at Kogilu. Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka alleged that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh were residing in the area using fake Aadhaar cards.
