Congress targets Rupani over faulty ventilator Dhaman-1

NEW DELHI: Hitting out at Gujarat government over faulty ventilators, the Congress on Saturday slammed the state Chief Minister Vijay Rupani for inaugurating and promoting ventilator ‘Dhaman-1', which is reported to be “mechanised Ambu-bag and inefficient” in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. While addressing a virtual Press conference, Congress leader Pawan Khera said, “The HLL Lifecare, which is owned by the Central government, had placed an order for 5,000 such ventilators.”

He further alleged that when the entire world is grappling with COVID-19 and the impact it had on their lives and economic health, we come across layers of controversies from Gujarat in its fight against COVID-19.

“On April 4, the Gujarat Chief Minister accompanied by his deputy, Nitinbhai

Patel inaugurated ‘Dhaman-1 at Ahmedabad civil hospital. The Dhaman-1 was termed as a so-called ventilator, which was donated to Gujarat and placed in the Ahmedabad civil hospital as per CSR guidelines of the company,” the Congress leader added. Later Gujarat CM and other states showed their keen interest in the product as everyone is in the need of ventilators due to high rise in the cases of COVID-19 across the country. So, HLL Lifecare also placed the order for 5,000 ventilators to meet the increasing demand.

Emphasising on the complaints against ventilators, Khera said, “On May 15, ICU superintendent of Ahmedabad civil hospital wrote to the government asking for more ventilators and informed that Dhaman-1 does not work on patients as it's not capable of providing life support to COVID-19 patients.