Congress govt in Karnataka orders SIT probe into Covid-19 ‘misamangement’ during BJP tenure

Public TV English
Public TV English
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BENGALURU: The Congress government in the state has ordered forming of a special investigation team (SIT) to investigate the alleged mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic by the previous BJP government.

Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru on Thursday, Law Minister H K Patil said that the SIT will be led by an officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police (IGP). Patil hit out at the BJP and alleged that the previous government “behaved inhumanely”. He said that the people of Karnataka faced the “biggest disaster” with the BJP “mismanaging” the Covid-19 pandemic in the state.

“We (the people of Karnataka) faced the biggest disaster, the (BJP-led) government behaved very inhumanely when they needed to save the people. The previous government was indulging in cheating people, corruption, documents were missing, there were misleading accounts, it didn’t allow PSI committee to work, they barred committee meetings too”, Patil said.

He further alleged that the BJP-led government purchased Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at an inflated rate, and purchased expired medicines. “They tried all possible ways to hide their corruption, from PPE kits which was available Rs 334, but purchased for Rs 2,117 to outdated medicines,” the minister said. “They purchased from blacklisted companies and also mislead saying all of it is donated, then paid them. All this information has came out”, he added.

The minister further highlighted the formation of a committee to investigate the irregularities in the procurement of PPE kits. “Complaints also wrote to human rights commision and Lokayukta. So, in this background, a committee was formed in the chairmanship of Justice Michael D’Cunha, around 50,000 documents, files were checked by the committee and an interim report was submitted. The report pointed out that there was huge corruption during Covid. Some information was also shared in cabinet sub-committee”, he said.

“The main issue which came out was huge corruption in Covid management, inhuman things came out. They made the administration collapse on the direction of some politicians by the officials, these are shocking subjects and facts”, he said.

The Justice John Michael D’Cunha Commission report recommended prosecution of former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and former Minister for Health and Family Welfare B Sriramulu over the purchase of three lakh PPE kits from Chinese firms, the minister said. Patil said that FIRs will be filed against those accused of Covid pandemic mismanagement and corruption. (ANI)

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