Agartala: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Sudip Roy Barman alleged major violations including misusing of funds in the Tripura health department while procuring medical kits used to fight the coronavirus pandemic across the state.
MLA of Agartala constituency allegedly stated in a letter to the chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb that some businessmen, with the active support of senior officials of the health department of the state, are using fraudulent means and taking advantage of the current situation.
“Government of India in a gazette notification, dated March 21 last, has fixed the rate of hand sanitizers saying that it will not be more than Rs 100 per bottle of 200ml. The prices of other quantities of hand sanitizers shall be fixed in the proportion of these prices. As such, maximum retail price of a 500 ml hand sanitizer stands at Rs 250,” Roy Barman wrote.
Roy Barman also stated that nearly 20 days after the NHM ’s mission director issued the center ’s guidelines on April 9, he ordered “Mayank Technocracy” to order 500 ml of hand sanitizer at Rs 320 and 12 per cent of GST equivalent to Rs 359.
The state paid an additional amount of Rs 109 for each 500 ml bottle of hand sanitizer, which violated the guidelines of the central government. Roy Barman said that during this national crisis, the state government will supply 5,000 bottles for a total price of Rs 5.45 lakh.
The letter also mentioned that the NHM’s mission director ordered the COVID-19 test kits, the ‘N-COV Real-time Detection Kit’, at a price of Rs 2,912, including GST, which was purchased earlier by the state at a price of Rs 1,150 per kit, the former state health minister alleged.
“Within this span of three days time, cost of testing kit raised from Rs 1,150 to Rs 2,912, a difference of Rs 1,762 per kit. So, total difference in amount in order for supply of these 1,920 kits stands to be Rs 33,83,040,” Roy Barman added.
He also said that the first order was placed before a well-reputed company of India while the second order was placed in a high price with a Tripura-based company.
He also added that, according to the observations of closely related personnel, the health department was extremely unable to store the necessary data for COVID-19 related stocks received from different government agencies, PSUs, private bodies under CSR activities. He then claimed that these items were misplaced and even sold by some health professionals and others.
