BENGALURU, 7 DEC

Sending out a stern warning that the culprits of Covid scam would not be spared, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Saturday said officials would be interrogated as per the recommendations of Justice Michael D'Cunha Committee on Covid. “We are reviewing the report and have instructed officials to take necessary action within the legal framework,” Shivakumar said.

“As per the recommendations of the Committee report, we will be interrogating many officials too. The Committee has also recommended filing criminal complaints against some,” he said.

“Our government also doesn’t agree with the report that there was no human error in the tragic death of 36 people in Chamarajanagar hospital. We will investigate the case again. The then minister had said that only 3 people had died due to oxygen shortage,” he said. “We will take stock of the investigation in Belagavi. We have given a free hand to officials to investigate Covid irregularities. As many as 84 lakh RTPCR tests have been done in Bengaluru city at a cost of Rs 502 crore. Rs 400 crore has already been released as well. This means that two people from each household were subject to RTPCR tests. Kidwai Hospital alone has conducted 24 lakh tests and billed Rs 146 crore. We need to verify this,” he said.

“We will review the report given by officials to check the violations. We will form a committee of senior retired officials to guide us in this investigation,” he added.

About a former health minister’s allegation that it was a political witch hunt, he said, “Why is he feeling guilty already when the investigations have just started? We have not even taken his name, but he is talking as if he is a culprit. The recommendations suggest filing criminal charges under Sections 71 and 11 of Public Service Act.”  –Salar News with Agencies

Cabinet sub-panel holds meet on Justice D'Cunha's report

State Cabinet sub-committee held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the actions that could be taken on the report submitted by Justice Michael D'Cunha related to alleged Covid irregularities.

Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Home Minister G Parameshwara, Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao and others were present in the meeting.

The report submitted by Justice D'Cunha had claimed that then BJP government did not utilise Rs 447 crore allocated for relief works and healthcare during Covid-19.

The report also alleged that the then government had sent Covid-19 samples to unqualified private labs which led to an expenditure of Rs 6 crore. –ANI