D V Sadananda Gowda, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers on Thursday asked if the people in the government should hang themselves for failing to procure vaccines according to the orders of the government. 

Talking to reporters, Gowda said, “The court has with good intention said everyone in the country should get vaccinated. I want to ask you, if the court says tomorrow that you have to give this much (of vaccine), if it has not been produced yet, should we hang ourselves?”. 

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When questioned about the shortage of vaccines, he emphasized the plan of action of the government. Further stating that its decisions are not guided by political gain. 

“Practically, certain things which are beyond our control, can we manage it?” quoted the Union Minister. 

According to Gowda, the government is doing its job sincerely and honestly. However, due to unforeseeable reasons, certain shortcomings have surfaced. 

Accompanying him was BJP National General Secretary CT Ravi who said that the country would have been in a worse situation if arrangements had not been made well in time. 

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“If proper arrangements were not made well in advance then there would have been fatalities 10 times or 100 times more,” said the Former Minister of Kannada and Culture of Karnataka. 

He further explained that due to systematic preparations the oxygen supply could have been increased from 300 metric tonnes to 1,500 tonnes. 

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Ravi also said that “Judges are not all-knowing (Sarvajna). Whatever is available with us, based on that the technical advisory committee will recommend how much (vaccine) has to be distributed. Based on their report, we will make a decision.”

Karnataka government officials have announced that order of three crore vaccines has been placed. However, the State has only received seven lakh doses.