New Delhi: On the day, when the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has crossed the mark of 6,74,000, Congress party, on Sunday, alleged a gap of Rs 2.5 lakhs in the procurement of ventilators by the Central Government during the pandemic.
"As per PMO's release, per ventilator comes out as Rs 4 lakh at the same time the suppliers, i.e. Agva Healthcare had quoted the price of Rs 1.5 lakh per ventilator. When the ventilator is available at Rs 1.5 per piece then why PM-CARES had allocated Rs 4 lakh per ventilator? Where is this extra money going," asked Congress spokesperson, Gourav Vallabh, during a virtual press briefing.
He also alleged a delay and mismanagement on the part of Government in the procurement of ventilators, stating that order of 40,000 ventilators from two domestic manufacturers was being made by the Center on March 31. Skanray Technologies was asked to manufacture 30000 ventilators whereas Agva Health Care for remaining 10,000 ventilators.
The Congress Spokesperson further added that later on PM-CARES fund had allocated Rs 2,000 crore for supply of 50,000 ventilators to the government-run COVID hospitals. "Do these 50,000 ventilators ordered through PM-CARES include the earlier order of 40,000 ventilators by the government or is it separate?" he asked.
He also raised questions over the PMO's release stating that only 1340 ventilators have been delivered till June 23. "We want to know where has the PM-CARES money gone and why there is a delay in delivery of ventilators to hospitals," said Prof Vallabh.
Amid the complaints registered against ventilators manufactured by Agva Healthcare for substandard quality and poor performance, Gourav Vallabh lashed out at the Government for compromising the health of lakhs of patients at the time of such unprecedented crisis.
He also raised questions over the transparency in procurement of ventilators, saying, "Had PM-CARES fund opted for open tendering and competitive bidding process before giving final order to these suppliers?"
"Our country is soon going to register more number of COVID cases than Russia. Yesterday, we had the highest number of cases in a single day that is 24,018.
Across the World Health experts were of the unanimous opinion that lockdown is a pause button which can help in providing time to improve health infrastructure special number of ventilators equipped beds," he asserted.
Also read: COVID-19 news from across the nation
