AURANGABAD: Maharashtra minister Subhash Desai on Monday said 185 ventilators supplied under the PM CARES fund to Aurangabad district were faulty and need to be replaced.
Speaking to reporters after a COVID-19 review meet here, the state industries minister said technicians from the manufacturing firm had come for repairs but they have demanded spare parts.
The ventilators procured by the state government were working well, he added.
"There are 546 functional ventilators in the district. The issue is with the 185 ventilators supplied under the PM CARES fund. It seems there is a manufacturing defect. If the ventilators are not repaired, we have to return them," he said.
The minister, however, added that the state had got the highest number of ventilators and thanked the Union government for it.
AIMIM Aurangabad Lok Sabha MP Imtiaz Jaleel also demanded that the faulty ventilators be replaced, and an FIR be lodged against the agency through which these machines were procured.
Desai informed that the global procurement of COVID-19 vaccines by a civic body was an experiment being done for the first time in Mumbai, and if it is successful, other civic bodies would be allowed to go for the same procedure.