Lucknow, February 16
The ruling Samajwadi Party and the opposition for once joined hands in the Vidhan Sabha today to underline the role of MNC pharmaceutical companies in creating a hepatitis B scare to sell their exorbitantly priced vaccines.
The context was a question put up by Ram Iqbal Singh, BJP MLA from Ballia, regarding any government proposal for administering free hepatitis B vaccination to students of primary and secondary schools.
Answering in the negative, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Azam Khan said there was no such scheme under consideration as the vaccination was very expensive and there were not enough resources to immunise such a vast student population.
