The Opposition Congress and Janata Dal (S) on Wednesday staged a walkout in the Legislative Assembly after the government turned down its demand for a judicial probe into the alleged scam in purchase of equipment for COVID-19 management.
Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar, who replied to a daylong debate on COVID-19 situation in the State, maintained that purchases had been made transparently. Terming the allegations of the Opposition as “false”, he said there was no need for any probe.
Referring to instances of other States buying ventilators at cheaper prices, the Minister said there were different kinds of ventilators and their prices too varied. “The cheaper ones bought by Tamil Nadu and being referred to by the Opposition are the ones used for ambulances. But what Karnataka has procured are high-definition ventilators that have 54 specifications,” he claimed. He agreed to provide a break-up of statistics related to purchases.
With respect to the allegations of the government paying ₹1,444 per PPE kit in April as against the charge of ₹575 paid for them in July, he said the prices were high earlier as the demand was also high. “If there was a scam, we would have paid higher prices even during July,” he maintained.
He said 15 government departments had spent around ₹4,200 crore on things related to COVID-19. Of them, the Health and Family Welfare Department had procured equipment worth ₹1,142 crore while the Medical Education Department had spent ₹76 crore on procurements. Most of the purchases had been made through e-procurement, he said.
Arguing that it would not be possible to follow all the procedures amid an emergency situation, he maintained that death toll would have touched one lakh if the authorities had waited for completion of various formalities before purchases. Urging the Opposition not to hit the morale of COVID warriors through allegations, he said no other State in the country had seen such allegations being levelled.
Dr. Sudhakar also launched a counter-attack by alleging that erstwhile Congress-JD(S) coalition government had paid ₹21 lakh for purchase of ventilators as against ₹12 lakh to ₹18 lakh paid by the present dispensation.
Walkout
Not convinced by his reply, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah alleged that even a layman could understand there was something fishy in the purchase of COVID-19 equipment. “We cannot keep quiet,” he said and staged a walkout with all the Opposition members.
