Chandigarh, May 12, 2021 (Yes Punjab News)
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal today requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order an inquiry into the purchase of faulty ventilators under the aegis of the PM Cares fund after reports that 71 out of the 80 ventilators received by the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot under the fund were found to be defective.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, the SAD President said “I am sure you would agree with me that supplying defective and inferior quality ventilators during a time of national health emergency is a criminal offence. The company responsible for this should be booked and they should be proceeded against as per the law”.
Mr Sukhbir Badal told the Prime Minister that it was equally important to probe the entire purchase order. “It is very important to ascertain if defective ventilators were purchased deliberately because the entire issue smacks of a big scam. Action should be taken against all those responsible for endangering the lives of Covid patients, however big they may be”.
Mr Badal also requested the Prime Minister that all purchases under the PM Cares fund be subjected to the same vigorous process of selection as done for orders of the union government. “All medical equipment bought under the PM Cares fund should be of international standards and should ideally be purchased after placing a global tender. Stringent quality standards should be laid out for all medical purchases to ensure patient lives are not put to risk under any circumstances”.
Explaining the issue in his missive to the Prime Minister, the SAD President said the faulty ventilators had caused loss of lives in Punjab besides hampering the country’s fight against the Covid pandemic.
“You would be shocked to learn that 71 out of 80 ventilators received by the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College at Faridkot under the aegis of the PM Cares fund have been found to be defective and unfit for use. The Baba Farid University Vice Chancellor has gone to record to say that the ventilators were of significantly inferior quality.
The Medical College authorities have tried to use the ventilators but they ran out of order after developing multiple defects within a few hours of being started. You would understand that in such a situation the hospital is not taking any risk to use the ventilators and has asked the State government to repair them so that the needs of critically ill patients can be addressed on an urgent basis”.
Mr Badal also requested the Prime Minister to direct the Union health ministry to dispatch 80 tried and tested ventilators from a reputed company to the Faridkot hospital immediately to ensure its health services were not affected.
He said the Rajasthan government has also faced a similar problem with a majority of the one thousand odd ventilators received by it under the PM Cares fund developing technical snags. Mr Badal said keeping in view the enormity of the problem he hoped the PM would pay kind attention to the important issue and do the needful at the earliest.
In another request to the Prime Minister, Mr Badal brought it to his notice that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had applied for permission to import Covid -19 vaccines to supplement the union government’s efforts. He requested that the union government grant permission to SGPC for this humanitarian cause.
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