The union government has shown criminal apathy towards Covid-19 victims and people of India as it has used less than fourteen percent funds allocated for the pandemic by finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman. Her deputy Anurag Thakur has released a data of how government has spent money in procuring vaccines which shows the apathy of the government. The Union government has so far spent only more than Rs four thousand seven hundred  crore on the Covid vaccination program which is not only quite less, but also indicates the lack of understanding o seriousness of the situation in the government. The world’s largest vaccination drive has suffered a series of setbacks, including slow pace of vaccination and shortage of vaccines in some states. The slow utilization of a sanctioned budget of Rs 35,000 crore comes at a time when maintaining the momentum in vaccination drive is extremely critical to slow down the unprecedented rise in new Covid infection cases and people are dying on road without oxygen and vaccine doses. Anurag Thakur, the minister of state for finance, has released data of how government made payments to the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer and Rs Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech. Though nobody is interested in knowing the data of government payments, but still it is showing how government has failed to make proper payments to vaccination drive. The minister’s tweets come in the wake of mounting criticism that the Centre delayed the placement of orders to local manufacturers that slowed down the pace of the vaccination program, that led to unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths in the country. The opposition also accused the Centre for delaying the approvals to the vaccines in use in other countries which could have rapidly expanded the vaccination coverage in the country. This is very serious allegation and nobody has answered to these charges from ruling side. Early this week, the Centre rebutted the news reports that it had not placed any fresh order with the country’s two vaccine makers after March this year. In a press statement, the health ministry said such news reports were factually incorrect. The total money While presenting the Union budget for the current fiscal, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a budget allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for Covid vaccination drive. According to the latest data, the Centre has so far (as on May 6) provided more than 17.15 crore vaccine doses to States and Union Territories free of cost. Health workers have so far administered more than 16.24 crore vaccine doses, while more than 13.09 crore persons have received at least one dose, more than 3.14 crore beneficiaries have received two doses of Covid vaccines. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the world’s largest vaccination drive in January this year. In the first round, the country aimed to cover three crore frontline workers, including health workers, sanitation workers and members of security forces and fire brigade. The second phase was launched in March this year that aimed to cover the population above the age of 60 years. There are enough indications that how the second surge has gone berserk in the country with daily death counts is rising to more than five thousand. An unprecedented rise in the new infections, which rose from little over 11,500 new cases on March 1 to over 3.9 lakh new cases on May 1 stunned the country and the world and highlighted the need for accelerating the current pace of vaccination. At this time, the government is going too slow which is only taking toll of innocent people of the country. The government should immediately provide vaccine doses to states so that, every citizen will be vaccinated. If center is not trusting states, it should take control of the situation and distribute the doses. But, the priority should be to save people’s lives