Kumaraswamy hits out at CM Siddaramaiah for questioning secular credentials of JD(S)
Bengaluru (PTI): JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Saturday slammed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for questioning the secular credentials of his party after its alliance with the BJP.
The JD(S) second-in-command also took a swipe at Siddaramaiah and sought to know how his party Congress had formed an alliance with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra who had at one point of time been allies of the BJP
In a message on 'X', Kumaraswamy said: "How secular it is to hold meetings of caste and distribute cookers and iron boxes with the tag line 'secular? Is it secular to hold a conference of religions and a meeting for a caste claiming to be the leader of minorities and backward communities? Tell me Mr Siddaramaiah?"
Siddaramaiah is a pseudo-socialist who uses the term socialism for political advantage to brand BJP as communalist, the former chief minister said.
"Your adjustment politics is world famous. Is the @INCIndia party secular which has formed alliance with BJP B team members in INDIA block?
"Stalin, Mamata Banerjee, Farooq Abdullah, Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren, Vaiko, Mehbooba Mufti, Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray. Aren't you ashamed to sit next to them?" Kumaraswamy wondered while referring to the leaders of INDIA alliance.
"You branded @JanataDal S as BJP B team for the sole reason that it formed government with @BJP4Karnataka in 2006 but the Congress was the one, which had come to former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's house to form the government with the same B team in 2018!" he added.
The former chief minister sought to remind Congress that secularism is not a word, but a loyalty deep in the heart. However, he said secularism is just a matter of speech for Siddaramaiah saying he is is obsessed with selfish politics and a thirst for power.
Kumaraswamy's outburst against Siddaramaiah follows the latter's message on 'X'.
"Will the JDS, which claims to be secular, remained secular even after its alliance with a communal party? We have no problem with JDS's alliance with BJP or any other party. Will alliance make JDS communal? Or does BJP follow a secular ideology? Let Kumaraswamy make it clear to the people of the state," Siddaramaiah had said.
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'Low-quality' catheters supplied to West Bengal govt hospitals at high price, probe ordered
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal health department has launched a probe into the supplies of allegedly low-quality and locally made catheters at a high price to several government hospitals, posing a risk to the lives of patients undergoing treatment in these facilities, officials said.
Such central venous catheters (CVCs) were allegedly supplied to at least five medical colleges and hospitals in the state, defying allocation of international standard-compliant CVCs, they said.
The distribution company, which has been accused of supplying these catheters to government hospitals, admitted to the fault but placed the blame on its employees.
"We started checking stocks some time back and found these locally made CVCs in my hospital store. These catheters are of low quality as compared to those allocated by the state. We have informed the state health department," a senior official of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital told PTI.
Low-quality catheters were also found in the stores of other hospitals, which indicates "possible involvement of insiders in the scam", a health department official said.
The low-quality CVCs were supplied by a distributor in the Hatibagan area in the northern part of Kolkata for the last three to four months, he said.
"Such kinds of local CVCs are priced around Rs 1,500 but the distributor took Rs 4,177 for each device," the official said.
A CVC is a thin and flexible tube that is inserted into a vein to allow for the administration of fluids, blood, and other treatment. It's also clinically called a central line catheter.
"An initial probe revealed that the distribution company Prakash Surgical had supplied the low-quality and locally manufactured catheters to several government hospitals instead of the CVCs of the government-designated international company.
"All the units will be tested and a proper investigation is on to find out who benefited from these supplies," the health department official said.
The distribution company blamed its employees for the supply of inferior quality catheters.
"I was sick for a few months. Some employees of the organisation made this mistake. We are taking back all those units that have gone to the hospitals. It's all about misunderstanding," an official of the distribution company told PTI.
According to another state health department official, a complaint was lodged with the police in this connection.
Asked about how many patients were affected by the usage of such low-quality CVCs, the official said, "The probe would also try to find that out".
According to sources in the health department, some of the staff of the hospitals' equipment receiving departments and some local officials of international organisations might be involved in the alleged irregularities.
