Probe stuck as testing report on kits awaited from DRDE
AMRITSAR : The investigation into the alleged scam involving purchase of personal protection equipment (PPE) at Government Medical College (GMC), Amritsar, has got delayed as the authorities are yet to receive the testing and certification reports of kits from the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE).
The DRDE, an agency of the defence ministry, has been authorised to conduct laboratory testing of Covid-19 kits.
The alleged purchase scam surfaced in April when doctors, nurses and other medical staff at the hospital refused to use the 2,000 kits saying they were substandard and did not have N-95 masks. They had also accused the authorities of paying around ₹41 lakh for the kits, which according to them should not have cost more than ₹7 lakh.
Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GMC’s hospital) medical superintendent Dr Raman Sharma had placed the order to buy the kits.
On April 24, Amritsar deputy commissioner Shiv Dular Singh Dhillon marked an inquiry into the matter to Pallavi Chaudhary, chief administrator, Amritsar Development Authority. But no report has been submitted yet.
After the Centre wrote to the Punjab government to complete the inquiry in a time-bound manner on June 23, on the request of Amritsar MP Gurjit Singh Aujla, the probe picked up pace and statements of 20 doctors were recorded.
Even after the enquiry into the alleged scam was marked on April 24, it took around 44 days for the hospital authorities to send the samples of PPE kits to the DRDE for testing.
“The samples of PPE kits were sent on June 7. The reports from DRDE were supposed to be received within a month. We recently sent a reminder to DRDE asking for the reports,” said Dr
Raman Sharma.
Dr Sujata Sharma, who was shunted out as GMC principal on Wednesday, said, “The probe cannot be completed till the DRDE sends reports as we cannot ascertain if the kits were substandard or not.”
Besides the probe entrusted by the DC, Dr Sujata Sharma had also formed an inquiry panel of college officials to look into the matter. On Thursday, GMC committee in-charge Dr JP Atri submitted a confidential report to Pallavi Chaudhary who was not available for comments.