Argusen English: Hemanta Pandey: Bhubaneshwar : Friday, June 23, 2023.
Similarly, Rs 56 lakh was given to a particular company for providing technological support and Rs 13 lakh was spent for other logistical support for the Covid bulletin, the RTI query revealed.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress slammed the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government alleging large-scale corruption during the battle against the pandemic.
Odisha's Bharatiya Yuva Morcha president Irashis Achary came down heavily on the State government and said, "How Come Rs 70 lakhs was spent on Covid press conference while no media persons were allowed in the events." He demanded all the concerned officials should be brought under investigation.
Senior Congress leader and Jatni MLA, Suresh Routray said, " It was very wrong on the part of the government to spend Rs 70 lakh from the State exchequer for Covid press conference sans journalists."
When the Odisha government was chest thumping about handling the Covid-19 crisis successfully, a Right to Information (RTI) reply from the Information and Public Relation department exposed its tall claims.
According to the RTI reply, the State government has spent a whopping amount of Rs. 70 lakh for the daily Covid bulletin being addressed by Odisha’s Covid-19 spokesperson Subroto Bagchi.
An amount of Rs 30,290 was spent towards the refreshment charges for the press conference though journalists were not allowed to the conference.
Earlier, both the Congress and BJP alleged Rs 500 crore scam in the procurement of masks, testing kits, personal protection equipment (PPE) and other articles in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.
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