Guwahati, June 8: Assam Trinamool Congress on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to Governor Jagdish Mukhi seeking CBI inquiry into the scam involving the supply of Covid safety equipment in Assam.

The memorandum stated, “At a time when BJP government (is) advocating a policy of ‘zero tolerance towards corruption’, saying about bribes- ‘na khaonga, na khane doonga’ (neither will I take, nor allow others to take), the BJP’s Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma has become embroiled in this controversy. Serious questions are now being raised that, even as the nation dealt with the unprecedented emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it became an opportunity for the health department of the BJP-led Assam government to hand over ‘urgent’ medical supply orders to companies owned by the then health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife Riniki Sarma Bhuyan and Sarma’s ‘business friend’ Ashok Dhanuka’s son Ghanshyam Dhanuka, for their own benefit.”

The memorandum said the allegation is based on a report by Guwahati- based web portal ‘The Crosscurrent’ and Delhi- based ‘The Wire’, which carried out an investigation, through RTI queries and accessing information in the website of the state chapter of the National Health Mission (NHM), into medical supply orders awarded before and during the National lockdown due to the Covid pandemic. “The results of the investigation published by the two news portals have raised serious allegations of abnormally high rates in supply orders awarded to firms close to present CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, without adhering to the tendering and quotation process. For example, there were protests against the allotment of supply order for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits and other Covid- related safety equipment by the then health minister and present chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to JCB Industries- a firm owned by his wife Riniki Sarma Bhuyan and ‘business friend’ Ashok Dhanuka’s son Ghanshyam Dhanuka. It has been alleged that these firms close to the Assam CM were given order for PPE kits at the rate of Rs 990 while others supplied the same item at Rs 600 a piece. There are rumours that crores of rupees have allegedly changed hands,” the memorandum stated.

It further stated that the statement issued in response to The Wire and The Cross Current’s report, the chief minister’s wife said her firm didn’t ‘take a penny’ for those 1,485 PPE kits but remained silent on wresting an ‘urgent’ supply order for the same kits prior to declaring them as her Corporate Social Responsibility or ‘CSR’ activity. “However, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma not only officially expressed her firm’s intent to supply PPE kits while her husband was the minister in the department but also got preferential treatment without going through the due process of tender or quotation. Two years on, a RTI reply from NHM, revealed that no PPE kits had been ordered or received from China. The question that now arises is- what happened to the 50,000 PPE kits that Sarma had proudly claimed to have sourced at his own initiative? Some have conjectured that the kits may have been used after all. If that is the case, the lives of health workers, who battled 24×7 to save Covid patients, were put at risk,” the statement further alleged.

The RTI replies to The Cross Current by the state chapter of the National Mission (NHM) revealed that between March 11, 2020, and May 29, 2020, GRD Pharmaceuticals was issued seven orders for delivering 500 ml and 100 ml bottles of sanitizers in quantities ranging between 500 to 20,000 nos. This made it one of the biggest suppliers of the product to the state health department during the pandemic. As per an order dated March 18, 2020, each 500-ml bottle of Dhanuka’s firm’s sanitizer, Handrub, was to be supplied to the state health department at Rs 231.87 including GST, while the 100-ml bottles were priced at Rs 100.30 per piece, including GST. On the other hand, the Assam government paid Rs 25 (Rs 37 with GST) to another firm- Surma Distilleries- for each 200 ml bottle of sanitizer it ordered. To GRD Pharmaceuticals, the government paid Rs 137 and Rs 81 more per bottle respectively if the former firm’s rates were to be applied.