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AAP's Sisodia says Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma gave PPE kits' contracts to kin
Himanta Biswa Sarma said his wife had donated 1,500 PPE kits to the government to save lives at a time when none was available in Assam during the raging Covid-19 pandemic.
Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday raised allegations of corruption against Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Addressing a press conference, Sisodia said Sarma, the then health minister, had given government contracts to firms of his wife and son's business partners to supply PPE kits above market rates in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic was raging across the country.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader's statement came hours after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the former would make a huge revelation against a top BJP leader soon, while sharing a tweet on Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on money laundering charges.
Sisodia, who referred to media reports, said that while the Assam government procured PPE kits for ₹600 a piece from other companies, Sarma gave urgent supply orders to the firms of his wife and son's business partners for ₹990 a piece “taking advantage of the emergency situation”. He added that the firm belonging to Sarma's wife does not even deal in medical equipment.
"While the contract given to the firm of Sarma's wife was cancelled as the company could not supply PPE kits, another supply order was given to the firm belonging to the business partners of his son at a rate of ₹1,680 per kit," Sisodia said.
Soon after, Sarma took to Twitter to refute the allegations and warned of filing a criminal defamation case against the AAP leader. He said that his wife had donated 1,500 PPE kits to the government to save lives at a time when none was available in Assam. “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,” the chief minister wrote on Twitter.
Sisodia said all of BJP's allegations against AAP leaders are proved untrue as they always raise make 'farzi' (bogus) claims. Speaking about Jain's arrest, Sisodia referred to the ED's statement to court where it said the arrested minister is not an accused in the case, but is being questioned in the case. Sisodia said Jain's truth will be out soon and he will be coming out of jail as he has not indulged in any corruption.
Delhi's education minister said setting up ‘mohalla clinics’ and government schools is not corruption, but giving government contracts to family members and their acquaintance is.
He said members of the BJP are now silent on corruption by a chief minister of a state ruled by the saffron party. "They talk of corruption and raise baseless allegations against members of opposition parties. What about their understanding of corruption... I want to ask them if they consider this (Assam case) corruption or not," Sisodia added.
