Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday claimed that the Union government was putting pressure on officials in the Aam Aadmi Party government to publish advertisements lauding the Centre’s Covid-19 vaccination programme.

Sisodia said that Delhi has received only 57 lakh vaccine doses against its requirement of 2.94 crore. He also said that the Centre’s allocation of 15 lakh vaccines for the month of July was not sufficient for the city.

“How will 15 lakh vaccines for July work?” Sisodia asked. “Going by this rate, it will take 15 to 16 more months to vaccinate entire Delhi. You [Centre] have been saying India has been conducting the largest vaccination drive globally, but it has turned out to be the most mismanaged, derailed and messed up exercise in the world.”

Sisodia said most Bharatiya Janata Party-led states were publishing advertisements hailing the country’s vaccination drive. He accused the Centre of wasting money on the advertisements instead of procuring vaccines for the citizens.

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“There are more advertisements than the Covid-19 vaccine shots in the country,” the Delhi deputy chief minister said. “They also asked officials in Delhi to publish advertisements in newspapers thanking [Prime Minister Narendra] Modiji for the free vaccination. They sent this ‘toolkit’ to Delhi government officials and pressured them to issue such advertisements.”

Sisodia urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP to focus on the vaccination drive. “I request the prime minister to supply 2.3 crore more doses in the next two months,” the senior AAP leader said. “I promise that we will do your publicity...publish advertisements in all of Delhi, but you have been asking states to do so without giving them vaccines.”

On Tuesday, Delhi reported 89 new coronavirus cases, the lowest daily rise this year so far. Delhi has recorded total 14,32,381 cases since the pandemic began in January 2020. The number of active cases in the national Capital stood at 1,996 and the recovery rate is 98.12%.