The Congress Sunday accused the erstwhile BJP government under former chief minister B S Yediyurappa of ‘profiting over dead bodies’ during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The attack came after the interim report submitted by Justice Michael D’Cunha Commission – formed to probe Covid-19 irregularities – recommended prosecution against Yediyurappa and former health minister B Sriramulu.
Karnataka IT/BT minister Priyank Kharge told a news conference that the portion of the report which details procurement of PPE kits during March and April 2020, showed that PPE kits were purchased from two Chinese firms at inflated prices. This was done despite the fact that PPE kits were locally available at lower prices, he added.
According to the report, direct procurement orders were issued by Yediyurappa and Sriramulu for two firms – Big Pharmaceuticals (one lakh kits) and DHB Global Hong Kong (two lakh kits) – at a price of Rs 2,117 per unit, which included the transportation cost from Hong Kong to Bengaluru.
After issuing purchase orders on April 2, 2020, the government added a corrigendum to the agreement and agreed to bear transportation charges. Due to this, the BJP government paid Rs 21.35 crore to transport goods worth Rs 62 crore, Kharge said. Moreover, DHB Global has “ceased to exist”. It was founded in 2019, bagged the contract within a year and closed down, the minister added.
Weeks earlier, on March 14, 2020, the state-run Karnataka State Medical Supplies Corporation Limited had procured PPE kits locally at Rs 333.4 per unit. Subsequently, the government procured kits at varying range of prices, the minister said, citing the report.
“The BJP made money out of corpses… It is very clear now that the BJP had made a priority of making money over corpses,” he said, adding that the seven-volume interim report of the D’Cunha Commission had highlighted several other irregularities.
While the Karnataka government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that it would implement the recommendations of the Commission, Yediyurappa has refuted the allegations. The Congress, the BJP leader said, was trying to dig up the past. “I am confident that I have done nothing wrong,” he told reporters Saturday.
The Commission had submitted its interim report in August this year and portions of the report came out Saturday. In August, the Commission was given a six-month extension to submit its final report.