When the common Indian citizens were staying indoors to follow the lockdown norms, some greedy politicians, bureaucrats and mafias were busy minting money. Money in the garb of coronavirus protection equipment.
The small hill state Himachal Pradesh was rocked by two lockdown purchase scams. In one case, the state secretariat bosses allegedly purchased coronavirus protection equipment and consumables like sanitisers and hand wash bottles at inflated prices.
Health Department director Dr AK Gupta was arrested after an audio clip in which he allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from Renuka, a Sirmaur-based supplier to clear an equipment purchase went viral. The name of state BJP chief Dr Rajeev Bindal was also dragged into the controversy following which he resigned on Wednesday.
The state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau has also registered a case against the rogue firm titled M/s Lalit Kumar after the Chief Minister had ordered a probe. There are allegations that the price tags of the sanitiser bottles were tempered with and the supplies were made on inflated rates. The supplier was not even licenced under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The vigilance bureau has seized all purchase documents of sanitisers, hand wash and other goods.
Scam in lockdown is like a sin and an act of sedition: Congress
While Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has ordered a vigilance probe into the allegations, state BJP chief in his resignation addressed to the national BJP chief JP Nadda, said he was resigning on ‘moral grounds’.
The opposition Congress in Himachal Pradesh has termed the allegations as a ‘sin’, saying the people were depositing their hard-earned money in the Chief Minister’s relief fund for Covid-19 but the politicians and officers were busy pocketing and misusing the same.
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