Thiruvananthapuram, Activists and supporters of the CPI-M led Left Democratic Front on Wednesday staged sit-in protests in front of their homes and party offices across Kerala, demanding the Centre ensure free vaccines are provided to all.

The Left, led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, has been demanding free vaccine supply from the Centre, noting that has been the practice in the country.

So far, the Centre has provided 60 lakh vaccine doses to Kerala and the state is now left with just around three lakh doses.

"This (decision for states to buy vaccines) is nothing but to help the corporates and hence the Centre is making the cash-crunched states to buy their needs. This is in no way acceptable and hence we decided to organise this unique protest," said S. Sudevan, the Kollam district Secretary of the CPI-M who along with his office bearers agitated in front of their party office.

On Wednesday, the Vijayan government gave an order for one crore doses of vaccine which includes 70 lakh doses of Covishield and 30 lakh of Covaxin.

"This is the first time that the Centre is levying a charge for a vaccine. All along vaccines that has been supplied in our country till now has been given free. We made numerous appeals to the Centre, but nothing seems to be happening and hence we decided to buy the vaccines and will give it free," Vijayan told the media here, asking the Centre to reconsider its decision.