Bengaluru, Jul 23: The opposition party Congress on Thursday demanded a judicial enquiry in the alleged scam in coronavirus related medical equipment procurement by Karnataka government.
However, Deputy chief minister Ashwathnarayan and Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai denied all the allegations.
Leader of Opposition (LoP) and former Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar addressed a press conference here and demanded a judiciary enquiry under a sitting High Court judge to investigate "BJP's Corona Scams."
"I made allegations on July 3. Nobody has denied it officially. On July 20, Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu and Deputy Chief Minister Ashwathnarayan in a press conference denied my allegations. Today, I furnished 14 documents. If you go through it, you will find corruption and misappropriation in medical equipment purchase," Siddaramaiah said.
"The documents are available with the government, how can they deny their own documents. They are telling that they have spent only Rs 324 crore but according to me the government has spent more than Rs 4,000 crore and nearly Rs 2,000 crore went in the minister and bureaucrats' pockets," he said.
He further said, "Centre has procured 50,000 ventilators under PM Cares at a cost of Rs 4, lakh per unit. Tamil Nadu has procured at Rs 4.78 lakh. But in our state, the price is between Rs 5.6 lakh to Rs 18.2 lakh. Is this not corruption?"
Siddaramaiah also dared the government to step up for an enquiry if they are "honest and transparent".
"I am demanding, constitute a judicial committee headed by sitting high court judge, let there be an enquiry in detail," he said.
DK Shivakumar said that his party has made the allegations based on government documents and media reports showing corruption.
"Karnataka government is purchasing equipment at high rates. We have exposed BJP's Rs 2,000 crore scams today. The government's main focus is to loot. They have paralysed the state administration," he said.
Denying the Congress' allegations, Deputy Chief Minister, Ashwathnarayan said that the government is ready to discuss this in the Assembly house.
"They have alleged Rs 700 crore misappropriation by health department but we have shown we have spent only Rs 290 crore," he said.
Giving details of the SDRF expenditure towards COVID-19 containment he said, "We have released Rs. 23,220.01 lakh in SDRF accounts and they have spent Rs Rs. 15, 918.99 lakh in various activities like migrant relief measures, measures for quarantine, sample collection, screening from March 14 to July 16."
Karnataka Home Minister, Basavaraj Bommai, said, "Karnataka government has spent Rs 506 crores for medical equipment and Rs 1,611 crores for other activities related to combatting COVID-19. So, we have spent Rs 2,117 crores as of now and there is no corruption in it."
Writing on his Facebook page, Justice Katju demanded death sentence for the cops involved in the encounter.
Comments
saudi bopanna ka bap ka hai. And who are you to say whether it is a muslim country or not. boppa
Saudi tere bap ka hai Kya ? Saudi is NOT Muslim country,.
YES WE ARE WITH YOU
Exactly. this is the fake encounter and cops deserve the death penalty.
Katju rightly said. Murderers along with masterminds deserve it.The trend of fake encounters has to be stopped in future.
Yes, many Indians believe that it was custodial killing/fake encounter, and a good majority also agree with Katju. All these Indians, including Katju - A former supreme court judge, are Anti-Nationals.
Sanghi chappars calling a qualified Rtd. chief justice of supreme court \Desh Drohi\". I mean why do people even respond to such comments and trolls.
None the less, Katju is also against many Islamic values and practices. But in this case, he has raised his voice for justice."
#2 Bopanna, KSA
What are you doing in KSA? It is a muslim country and is it allowed to you to work there? How can you feed your family in the wealth which is earned in muslim country. You hate Ummah then in this case you are a hypocrite.
Remember this soon or later truth will prevail and that time you will be sad. In your view if Justice Katju is desh drohi then what about Praveen togadiya, Karnal purohith, sadhvi prajna, Swami asimanad and other all sangi terrorists??
You are right Mr.katju. Guys look @ video, and suspects prisoners were raising hands for surrender. But cops deliberately fired at them. And if you watch last night debate with bloody BJP spokesperson the way of answering was very shameful. Just they were struggling to answer the TV anchors questions.
Bopanna, if it had happened to you or any of your family member you would have felt the same thing.....no one has proved them guilty....they were under trial...police are not doing their job...instead encountering them by putting Simi tag....it is not good for a democratic country like India.....
How much does the Ummah pay you for such statements?
This guy is a Desh drohi
Death penalty for COPS in India !!!!!!!!!.....Forget it man
Add new comment