MCD raises alarm over equipment purchase

After the alleged streetlight scam, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is now being cautious in procuring medical equipment for the Commonwealth Games. Neelam Pandey reports.

After the alleged streetlight scam, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is now being cautious in procuring medical equipment for the Commonwealth Games.

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In a letter written to the MCD commissioner K.S. Mehra on August 26, the leader of the MCD House, Subhash Arya, has urged the commissioner to stop purchase equipment worth Rs 2 crore.

According to Arya, the cost of equipment quoted by the companies recommended by Delhi government is 70 times higher than the market price at which the MCD had been procuring the same equipment till date.

"We have been asked to set up a medical camp at university's rugby stadium and also in Hindu college for two days, for which Delhi government has made it mandatory for us to purchase certain equipment without inquiring whether our hospitals have them or not. Why should we buy equipment which we already have and that too at a much higher price? I have asked the commissioner to look into it," said Arya.

Arya further claimed that the companies that they have been asked to purchase the equipment from have been blacklisted by the Delhi government in the past too.

He said they already have a 1,000-bedded hospital — Bara Hindu Rao — and rather than purchasing the equipment, they could easily use the equipment from the hospital.

"We have to buy a total of 34 items which will be used to provide relief to basic sports related injuries on the spot. There is no need to buy the equipment for merely two days," said Arya.