The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday expressed displeasure over the Centre’s stand in defending the procurement of ventilators that were dysfunctional.
The Assistant Solicitor General of India, Ajay Talhar, submitted an affidavit filed by G.K. Pillai, Under Secretary of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, before the Division Bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and B.U. Debadwar.
The Centre was asked to file an affidavit after it was brought to the notice of the court that 113 of the 150 ventilators provided to Maharashtra under the PM Cares Fund were faulty.
After reading the affidavit, the court remarked, “The tenor of the affidavit doesn’t show you are worried about the lives of the patients. The affidavit stated that the ventilators are not provided under PM Cares Fund but under MakeinIndia ventilators and that they are in perfect condition.”
The court said, “As such there is a complete denial that these ventilators are supplied through PM Cares as announced earlier. We find such statements demonstrating insensitivity on the part of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.”
Mr. Talhar said teams were constituted to check the functioning and working of the ventilators. An independent team was sent on May 22. The court interrupted him and said, “What you are saying sounds superficial and without conviction.”
Mr. Talhar went on to say that those operating the ventilators lacked training and did not have the knowledge and training to do so, which was why the ventilators were turning faulty.
In its order, the court recorded the day-to-day report from the Government Medical College and Hospital Aurangabad that was signed by eight doctors.
The report said the ventilators developed errors from the day they were installed by the company. As they were not functioning properly, patients started complaining of breathlessness within hours of ventilators being switched on.
The court noted, “You (the Centre) may think of it as a trivial issue, but we will not close our eyes to this.”
The court directed Mr. Talhar to mention on an affidavit the remedial and corrective steps taken by the Centre to rectify the issue.
