After the Assam government denied allegations by a section of the media that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s family was involved in ‘misconduct in supply of PPE kits’, the CM said, “It was not corruption but humanity.”
“as India While battling the Covid pandemic in 2020, Assam Health Minister Himanta Sarma had given contracts to the companies of his wife and son’s business partners to supply PPE kits above market rates,” AAP leader Manish Sisodia said on Saturday. The allegation was made citing media reports.
In a press conference, he claimed that while the Assam government procured PPE kits from other companies for Rs 600, Sarma placed orders for immediate supplies for Rs 990 to the firms of his wife and son’s business partners, “Benefits of Covid Raising “-19 emergency”.
He alleged that the firm of Sarma’s wife does not even do business of medical equipment. Sisodia said, “While the contract awarded to the firm of Sarma’s wife was canceled as the company could not supply the PPE kits, another supply order to the firm belonging to the business partners of his son at the rate of Rs 1,680 per kit was given from.” Quoting media reports.
Responding to the allegations, CM Sarma said, “The company wrote to the NHM of Assam that the supply of around 1,500 PPE kits for the Covid warriors should be treated as CSR contribution and hence not a single rupee was paid by the government.” should go. Assam NHM duly accepted it. Manish bhai, this is not corruption, it is humanity. My wife has not committed any crime, she tried to help him at the time of Assam’s biggest crisis.”
“Throwing mud at others will not be accepted. You will have to face the legal consequences,” he said.
The company in question wrote to the NHM of Assam that the supply of around 1,500 PPE kits for the Covid warriors should be considered as CSR contribution and hence not a single rupee should be paid by the government. pic.twitter.com/HnFbs5ZbPy
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) 5 June 2022
Government spokesperson Piyush Hazarika had said that there was no scam in the supply of PPE kits and no member of the Chief Minister’s family was involved in the supply of any material related to the COVID pandemic.
“The allegations are false, fictitious, malicious and can be attributed as the handiwork of a certain section of vested interests,” Hazarika, the state’s Minister of Water Resources and Information and Public Relations, told reporters here.
“Why are the two organizations (who had claimed) not going to court if they have evidence instead of making false and baseless allegations?” He added. On June 1, a joint investigation report by two digital media organizations – New Delhi-based ‘The Wire’ and Guwahati-based ‘The CrossCurrent’ – claimed that the Assam government had ordered four COVID-19 related emergency medical supplies, which were appropriate. Most likely without following. process.
“During the outbreak of the pandemic two years ago, no one knew how to deal with the situation and experts said that PPE can provide complete protection to tackle the COVID infection. But there was no firm in Assam which manufactured the kits, while many other states had stopped transporting them as they themselves needed them,” said Hazarika.
“During an emergency, it is not possible to follow the normal rules and regulations. The cabinet had decided that a committee would be formed and if its members gave permission to procure necessary kits and equipment to deal with the situation, it could be procured,” said Hazarika, who was then the minister of state for health. , Told.
Accordingly, orders were placed for 35 firms for PPE kits and in the end only nine firms could supply them to the government. He said the firm referred by the portal had been placed an order worth only Rs 85 lakh. Some PPE kits were arranged under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), but not a single penny went from the government. “So how can it be a scam or a scam?” Hazarika asked.
The Chief Minister’s wife Rinki Sarma Bhuiyan tweeted that in the first week of the pandemic there was not a single PPE kit available in Assam. “Taking cognizance of the same, I reached out to a business acquaintance and with much effort distributed around 1500 PPE kits to NHM (National Health Mission). Later, I wrote to the NHM to consider it as part of my CSR,” she said.
Bhuyan claimed that she did not charge “a single penny” for the supply of PPE kits and added that she has always been “transparent” about “giving back to the society” irrespective of her husband’s political position.
With input from agencies
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