Gujarat assembly session: Covid testing kits cost Rs160 crore

Gandhinagar

The Gujarat government had made medical purchases worth Rs360 crore to tackle the corona pandemic. Of the sum, Rs160 crore was spent to purchase Covid-19 testing kits in just five months.

During the Corona debate, Deputy CM Nitin Patel told the House the state govt’s Gujarat Medical Services Corporation has purchased medicines and equipments. It purchased drugs worth Rs69 crore and medical equipments worth Rs130.41 crore. Patel claimed compared to Gujarat, more corona cases were reported in Maharashtra, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi and Bengal. National positive rate average is 8.5% (8.5 persons per 100 testings) against the Gujarat’s 3.28%. The state is conducting 55,097 tests per million, better than the national average of 45,250. The state has 1,831 per million corona cases, whereas the national average is 3,846. It took 45 days in the state for corona cases to reach from 50,000 to one lakh. Whereas in Maharashtra, it doubled in 19 days, in Tamil Nadu, doubling rate is 15 days.

`2.35cr fees to 11 advocates in 3 yrs

The state government’s all major decisions are challenged in courts. So, it has to hire advocates. Over the last three years, only for two subjects — school fees regulation committee and fix pay employment issues — it paid Rs2.35 crore to 11 advocates.

In a written reply in the Assembly, the law department has stated the government has enacted Gujarat Private Schools Fees (Regulation of fees) Act, this was challenged by private schools management first in HC and later in the Supreme court. The issue that cost the state heavily is fixed pay employees demand to pay them regular full salary, this too was fought up to the SC. For both the cases, the state paid Rs37.33 lakh to three advocates to represent it in the High Court.

For Fees Regulation case, SC’s four advocates were paid Rs1.42 crore. Whereas for the fixed pay case, it paid six advocates Rs55.51 lakh fees.