Karnataka Minister Sreeramulu denies ventilator scam, offers to quit if he is proven wrong

Bengaluru: Responding to allegations of the Opposition parties regarding the purchase of COVID-19 medical equipment, Deputy Chief Minister Dr. C N Ashwathnarayan, on Monday, ruled out any investigation into the issue and said that all allegations were baseless and were being made to demoralise the officers fighting the crisis.

After giving an account of the COVID-related purchases in question, health minister B Sreeramulu even offered to resign from his post if his claims were proven false.

It can be recalled that recently, the Congress’ Karnataka unit had levelled allegations against the ruling BJP party, accusing them of corruption while purchasing medical equipment for COVID-19 treatment.

Addressing the issue, the DCM said that the health department has spent only Rs 290 crores and that the medical education department has spent another Rs 33 crores on the purchase of medical equipment since March this year.

“We have not flouted any norms. Our government has managed to procure enough equipment in these tough times when the production of PPEs and ventilators was inadequate due to the high demand,” he clarified.

Rubbishing Congress leader Siddaramaiah’s claims that the government had purchased ventilators worth Rs 120 crores, Minister Sreeramulu said, “We have bought only 748 ventilators at a total cost of Rs 10.61 crores since March. Siddaramaiah is desperate to become the Chief Minister of the state for a second time and that is why he is targetting our government.”

Source: NK