Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma refuting all the allegations of PPE kit supply corruption said that he will take legal actions against Delhi Deputy CM, Manish Sisodia.
Sharing CSR related documents on Twitter, Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote, “The company in question wrote to Assam’s NHM stating that supply of around 1,500 PPE kits for Covid warriors must be treated as CSR contribution and hence not a single rupee must be paid by Govt.”
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He added, “Assam NHM duly acknowledged the same. Manish bhai, this is not corruption, it’s humanity. My wife hasn’t committed a crime, she tried to help Assam at the time of its biggest crisis. Throwing muck at others will not be accepted. You will face legal consequences.”
Referring to another tweet by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal where he had offered to buy PPE kits without tender, Sarma said that AAP leaders chose to contradict each other rather than fighting a crisis. “People of Delhi are paying the price for this”, he added.
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Manish Sisodia, however, has not yet responded to the recent tweets by the Assam CM.
On Saturday, Sisodia had accused Himanta Biswa Sarma of corruption based on a report by The Wire.
Sisodia had claimed that providing government contracts to family members was seen as corruption.
As Sarma refuted the claims on Twitter, Sisodia on Saturday evening wrote, “Honorable Chief Minister @himantabiswa ji! Here is your wife’s contract to buy 5000 kits in the name of JCB Industries at 990/- per kit… Tell me, is this paper false? Is it not corruption to give a tender purchase order to your wife’s company as a health minister?” (Translated from Hindi)
Sarma responding to this wrote another tweet stating, “At a time when the entire country was facing the worst pandemic in over 100 years, Assam hardly had any PPE Kits My wife took the courage of coming forward and donating around 1500 free of cost to the govt to save lives She didn’t take a single penny.”
It may be mentioned that earlier on Saturday, Sisodia targetting Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that setting up mohalla clinics or schools is not corruption but giving contracts to family members and their acquaintance is.
Sisodia referring to the recent report by The Wire based on RTI replies over the PPE kits supply.
Speaking to the media, he said that members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were being harassed and booked under farzi (false) cases by the BJP Government. “All the allegations are proven to be false once the cases reach the court. Even the same had happened with Satyendar Kumar Jain”, he added.
“But now let us tell everyone what real corruption is. Corruption is when a BJP leader and chief minister provides government contracts to his wife’s company and his son’s business partner at random rates higher than the existing one”, he added.
Sisodia named Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma based on the report by The Wire which stated that in 2020 firms linked with Sarma who was the health minister back then were awarded PPE kit supply contracts but at a higher rate than the ones already available in the market.
The Delhi Deputy CM questioned the BJP if this was not corruption?
He siting the report and the RTI documents asked if the BJP would now initiate an investigation into the allegations now that there is evidence already present.
Sisodia further said that although there were no tenders in the process as these were emergency supplies, it still was a corruption the quoted price on the PPE kits supply was much high than the already available rates.
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He said that the rates initially quoted by JCB Industries were Rs 990 whereas, other companies were already supplying the same for Rs 600.
He further added that not only were these firms awarded the contracts, they even failed to supply the complete numbers quoted.
He said that despite the companies linked the CM failed to supply all the kits, and the company belonging to his son’s partner was later given another contract where the prices were again higher than the earlier quoted amount.
“This time the price was quoted at Rs 1680 per kit”, he added.
Continuing with this he said another company named Agile Associates had quoted the price at Rs 2205 and even this was linked with the CM.
Sisodia added, “Issuing non-tender contracts during an emergency is not a crime but issuing contracts to companies linked with the CM that too at much higher rates than existing seems to be an open corruption.”
He asked the BJP to ascertain if this was not corruption as there is evidence already present. “Will you launch an enquiry into the matter and put him in jail”, Sisodia told the BJP.
Sarma reacting to this, refuted the allegations warning Sisodia of filing a criminal defamation case against him.