Political scuffle is high in the state of Karnataka. Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President DK Shivakumar on Tuesday asked statutory scrutiny against alleged misappropriation of funds by the state government. Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar sought the ruling BJP government as to why it had paid excessive amounts of money to obtain medical equipment. Leader of Opposition, Siddaramaiah stated that based on the information given from the Health Secretary, the government had spent Rs 4,147 crore to procure Personal Protection Kits (PPE), masks, surgical gloves, oxygen cylinders, ventilators, hand sanitizers and other essentials.

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He told that the government could have obtained the same equipment for Rs 2,100 crore. He asked, "The government overpaid for ventilators. The cost was Rs 4 lakh per ventilator but the government paid Rs 12 lakh. As on March 9 this year, Pastisurge, a Maharashtra-based company had bid to sell PPE kits for Rs 330 per kit. But the government imported it from China. As many as 3 lakh PPE kits were imported and the government paid Rs 2,117 for each of these kits. That is almost seven times more. When there are companies selling it in India for cheaper rates, why did the government not buy?"

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The governing party, however, did not answer his questions. KPCC President and Kanakapura MLA DK Shivakumar also had the same question from the ruling government. He said that the state government had failed to help the farmers, who are suffering huge declines due to the fallout of the pandemic.

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