NEW DELHI: From March 2020 till November, the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi spent Rs 71.17 crores (Rs 7117.64 lakh) towards novel coronavirus, reveals the institute on queries through Right to Information Act.
An RTI query filed by this correspondent, AIIMS Finance Division responded with a break-up without many details that the ‘head expenditure’ over Covid-19-related purposes stood at Rs 7,117 lakh.
The amount is divided in two categories: M & E (Monitoring and Evaluation) which is Rs 2,368.91 lakh (Rs 23.68 cr) and M & S (Maintenance & Support) which is Rs 4,748.73 lakh (Rs 47.48 cr).
As per the reply to the query over funds received from the Centre for assistance on expenditure related to Covid-19, the administration said “no separate funds/grant was provided by a ministry for COVID 19.”
“At present the institutes may meet their funds requirements from normal budgetary provisions,” it said in a reply.
However, as per the reply, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana had said that the additional financial support to the individual institutes to meet their expenses on these counts would be provided later.
Also, for dealing with the pandemic crisis related to accessibility for ICU beds with ventilators, the AIIMS did not have to purchase any ventilators for Covid treatment from March till November last year.
In an RTI query, AIIMS was asked as to how many ventilators were purchased from March 2020 till November and the purchase price of each ventilator.
The authorities replied that the hospital store has not purchased any ventilators from that period.
Also, the AIIMS said that the information on the purchase price does not pertain to the administration.
When asked about purchase of oxygen cylinders and from whom those were procured, the RTI reply noted that the hospital did purchase 58 of B type 10-litre and four of D types 10-litre cylinders from government e-marketplace (GeM) — a platform that facilitates online procurement of common use goods and services required by various government departments/organizations/PSUs.
The price range of these oxygen cylinders was between Rs 7,159 to Rs 5,600 approximately, the RTI reply stated.
The institute also purchased more than 21 lakh N95 masks from the March to November last year. The price range of these masks is from Rs 36 to Rs 175, revealed the RTI.