Chennai: The main opposition DMK and its ally Congress in Tamilnadu today mocked at the Union and State governments over the procurement of rapid test kits for coronavirus, seeking to know how they would protect the 130 crore plus Indians when they could not even buy ‘quality equipment’ after scrutiny.
Targeting the governments here and at the Centre over rapid kits, the usage of which has now been halted, Tamilnadu Congress Committee president K S Alagiri claimed that ‘profiteering’ in the deal was scuttled only due to the court intervention.
In an order last week, the Delhi High Court fixed the price of the antibody test kits at Rs 400 each as against Rs 600 approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research. The ruling came on a plea by two companies, Rare Metabolics Life Sciences Pvt Ltd and Aark Pharmaceuticals, which had entered into an agreement with Matrix Labs, for distribution of the kits in India. Matrix Lab is the the importer of the kits.
“How the Central and State governments are going to protect the 136 crore people when they could not even buy quality kits after due scrutiny?” Alagiri asked in a statement. DMK leader Durai Murugan too has raised similar questions.
On Monday too, DMK questioned the rationale behind the ‘sky high’ rate of Rs 600 per unit by the State government. The Congress leader today said the Centre has no answers to the questions being raised over the matter.
The Indian Council of Medical Research on Monday asked the states to stop using COVID-19 rapid testing kits procured from China due to their poor quality even as the government said not a single rupee will be lost in cancelling the orders as payments were not made to the Chinese suppliers.
India procured around five lakh rapid antibody test kits from the two Chinese firms, Guongzhou Wondfo Biotech and Livzon Diagnostics, and they were distributed to several states reporting rising cases of the coronavirus infection. The Tamilnadu government too has announced returning 24,000 rapid test kits imported from China.
Tamilndu to return 24,000 kits
The Tamilnadu government has announced returning 24,000 rapid test kits imported from China, hours after the ICMR asked States to stop using the COVID-19 rapid antibody kits procured from two companies in the Asian country to be sent back to the suppliers.
“As per the ICMR order, all 24,000 kits received by the Tamilnadu government are being returned,” Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar said in a statement.