‘Need joint audit for ventilators’

MUMBAI: Hours after Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi directed an audit into the installation and operation of ventilators provided to the states by the Centre, Maharashtra Congress demanded a joint audit by the state and Centre. The state Congress has been raising the issue of “sub-standard” quality of ventilators provided to Maharashtra from the PM Cares fund.

Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant said merely an audit would not be enough and demanded that the Center and the state government conduct a joint audit and take action against the “culprits”. According to a statement by Sawant, these ventilators are lying unused at many locations including Aurangabad and Nashik. Welcoming the decision by PM Modi, Sawant said he should have taken the decision last year as the machines would not have been lying unused.

“During the Covid-19 outbreak, the Central government has been supplying ventilators to the states and Union Territories from the PM Cares fund. Under the Make in India initiative, some companies have been given the task of making ventilators. Over the past year, objections have been raised from various states about the quality and uselessness of these ventilators. Similar objections were raised in Gujarat. Recently, Aurangabad Medical College had appointed a committee to give a comprehensive report on the quality of ventilators provided to them. The report is very serious and concludes that all the ventilators supplied by Jyoti CNC, a Gujaratbased company, are useless,” the statement read.