PANJIM: Vijay Pai, who quit the Trinamool Congress and his party position as General Secretary, is the latest in the line of resignations from the party that fared poorly in the Assembly elections getting no seats and fewer votes than the RGP and the Aam Aadmi Party.
Speaking to Herald Pai said, “I was supposed to leave long back, before Yatish Naik, (who resigned when he was unceremoniously denied a ticket from Saligao, and the candidate who replaced him finished last). I waited to respect Luizinho Faleiro (TMC Rajya Sabha member) who took me to the TMC. I waited till elections and counting.”
He added, “TMC did not give us confidence in the party. They did not give me the responsibility that I wanted to take up as office in charge. Even the State committee was formed after three months. When we joined, they said that the committee will come soon. Even a party president was decided at the last moment.”
Pai, who has been a strong backroom person in the Congress and had worked for 28 years, said, “In TMC I was finally given a post of General Secretary, but I was a workless general secretary, asked to go and sit in the office. Why would I have left Congress if I had to do this? There I was office in charge, looked after protocol and constituencies. So, I was a workless general secretary.”
The number of party leaders who have quit the TMC in the recent past includes Lavoo Mamledar (who contested on a Congress ticket from Marcaim). Then former councillor of Margao Municipal Council and one of the first local leaders to join Trinamool Congress (TMC), Doris Texeira, left the party, as did Mahesh Amonkar who was the TMC candidate from Margao.
Last week, SII had defended the pricing of the Covishield vaccine, saying the earlier price was based on advance funding and now it has to invest in scaling up and expanding capacity to produce more shots.
The company, which manufactures the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at Pune, had on April 21 announced a price of Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals and at Rs 400 for state governments and for any new contract by the central government.
“The current situation is extremely dire, the virus is constantly mutating while the public remains at risk. Identifying the uncertainty, we have to ensure sustainability as we must be able to invest in scaling up and expanding our capacity to fight the pandemic and save lives,” the company had earlier said.
The government last week waived basic customs duty on import of COVID vaccines, medical grade oxygen and related equipment for three months.
India has announced expansion of its COVID-19 vaccination drive by allowing its large 18-plus population to get inoculated from May 1.
