Maharashtra Given Max Medical Material By Centre: RTI

Mid-Day: Mumbai: Saturday, 25 July 2020.

It emerges that the Centre has given Maharashtra, where the pandemic is on the rise, the highest number of virus fighting tools, drugs and other material such as N95 masks, Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits and drugs, though the supply of ventilators isn't on the expected lines.

While replying to an RTI query filed by social activist Anil Galgali, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said that by July 10, 2020, it had given Maharashtra 21.84 lakh N-95 masks, 11.78 lakh PPE kits, 77.20 lakh hydroxychloroquine tablets and 1,805 ventilators. By the same time, the ministry's total supply across the country was 2.18 crore N95 masks, 1.21 crore PPE kits, 6.12 crore hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) tablets and 9,150 ventilators.

Galgali had sought information from the ministry on May 1, 2020, but was refused a reply. It was only when he went into the first appeal on June 1, 2020, with the Director of the Ministry, Rajiv Wadhwan, that a response came. The Ministry's under secretary, G K Pillai, gave him a list of equipment allocated to the states and union territories till July 10, 2020 which showed that Maharashtra's Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government has benefitted most from the distribution. The information said the Centre had also supplied to its institutions 26.61 lakh N95 masks, 14.38 lakh PPE kits, 57.32 lakh HCQ tablets and 330 ventilators.

Galgali criticised the government for not sharing the information in the first attempt and demanded that all COVID-19 related information and efforts be uploaded on the ministry's official website. "This will underline the government's efforts and ensure transparency," he said.

Ventilators In Short Supply

According to the information, all states and UTs together required 17,938 ventilators by July 10. Out of this, only 9,150 ventilators were delivered. By that day, Maharashtra needed 1,770 (it was given 1,805 by the Centre), Karnataka 1,020, Andhra Pradesh 914, Uttar Pradesh 811, Rajasthan 706 and Tamil Nadu, 529 ventilators. Only Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Puducherry and Odisha got their 100 per cent demand fulfilled, and Sikkim, Lakshadweep and Ladakh were not given any.