BHUBANESWAR: More than a dozen trucks, laden with personal protective equipment (PPE), are stranded at the godowns of Odisha State Medical Corporation as the State Government has allegedly refused to accept the consignments.
Though officials refused to divulge the volume of PPE kits and other protective gears loaded in the trucks, sources said more than 20 trucks from various manufacturers are awaiting permission from the Government to unload the materials.
Even as Health Department officials claim the State has enough PPE, frontline Covid warriors - health workers and PRI members managing temporary health camps and women SHG members engaged to provide food to returnees alleged that they are deprived of protective gears. So far six ASHA and Anganwadi workers, TMC supervisor, teacher and Sarpanch on duty without PPE have tested positive.
As per the decision taken by State-level procurement committee, the OSMC had placed orders for procurement of 15.7 lakh PPE, 2.2 crore triple-layer masks, 7.5 lakh N95 masks and 1.7 crore nose clip adaptable masks besides other protective gears for healthcare workers.Orders were also placed for other medical equipment and testing machines.
Though the date of receipt for masks was fixed for May 20, the committee initially decided to accept PPEs till May 31 which was advanced to May 26 last Monday. By then several trucks had arrived, some were on way to Odisha while some others had left from the manufacturing units in Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and other south and north Indian states.
Manufacturers allege that they were asked to supply kits by May 31 and accordingly consignments were despatched. “We produced kits as per quality specifications but all of sudden the officials changed the delivery date to May 26. It is illegal and uncalled for. How can the Government play with manufacturers during a pandemic like this? How will we meet the cost of raw materials and make payments of workers?” lamented a manufacturer.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Department PK Mohapatra said the State has enough stock of PPE kits and other protective gears.
“The suppliers were informed that no consignment will be accepted after May 26 but they claimed the trucks were already on the transit. Other states also require the kits and trucks can be diverted. A final decision on this will be taken during the procurement committee meeting on Monday,” he added.
As per the data laid before the Council of Ministers meet, the State has a stock of 49,807 N-95 face masks, 3,29,73,598 triple layer face masks, 8,05,595 PPE overall kits and 29,448 KN-95 face masks.