Satheesan terms KMSCL fire 'mysterious', hints at attempts to destroy evidence of COVID corruption

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Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition Leader V D Satheesan said it was "mysterious" that a second fire had broken out in a godown of Kerala Medical Services Corporation Limited (KMSCL) in quick succession and in the exact manner of the first fire at the KMSCL godown in Kollam on May 17.
"These back-to-back fire incidents have coincided with the Lok Ayukta probe into the allegations of corruption in the KMSCL's purchase of medicines and equipment during the pandemic. Medicines and equipment worth lakhs of rupees that were purchased during the time of COVID have been destroyed in the fire. This is highly suspicious," Satheesan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.
"Among the destroyed medicines are ones whose expiry date was 2014," Satheesan said. It is puzzling why such old stock was stored in the godown. It should have been done away with very early,” he said.
The fire at the KMSCL's drug warehouse at Uliyakkovil in Kollam took place just five days ago on May 17. Fire officials say, like in Kollam, it was the presence of bleaching powder that had caused the fire to intensify and spread in the KMSCL's KINFRA godown at Thumba in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Opposition Leader said the similarity of the incidents was unsettling. "It is hard to believe that for the second time, a KMSCL godown was getting gutted as a result of heat from bleaching powder," he said. "If the Kollam fire was from bleaching powder, the authorities were duty-bound to remove these or segregate the stock in other KMSCL godowns," he said.
According to him, even the primary steps that had to be taken in a godown that stocks medical equipment were not done. "Inspection of the fire safety wing has to be conducted and their NOC has to be secured. Now it is understood that the Kollam godown did not have such a NOC. I am not sure of the status of the Thiruvananthapuram godown," he said.
Further, the Opposition Leader said that fire in critical places had now become common in Kerala. "When the NIA and Enforcement Directorate started probing the Life Mission case, a fire broke out in the protocol wing of the Secretariat," Satheesan said. "Now when the AI-camera controversy cropped up, there was a fire in the office of the additional private secretary of the Industries Minister," he said and added a bit of sarcasm: "Sudden break out of fires and CCTV cameras going kaput in invisible lightning have become quite commonplace."
The Lok Ayukta case against the KMSCL relates to the purchase of PPE kits and gloves during the pandemic. The charge is that PPE kits were purchased for over Rs 1000 a kit when it was available for less than Rs 500 in Kerala. It was alleged that gloves were purchased for Rs 12 a piece when gloves of similar quality could have been procured in Kerala for Rs 7.
It was alleged that the purchases, violating the provisions of the Store Purchase Manual, were made by the KMSCL officials at the behest of their political masters using the cover of COVID. It was further alleged that 100 per cent advance payments were made to inexperienced and non-existing companies as well as proprietorships for procuring low-quality medical equipment at exorbitant prices. Former health minister K K Shailaja is one of the accused.
Satheesan alleged that the KMSCL has transformed into a den of corruption. 'In two years, the Corporation has seen nine MDs. These young IAS officers try to jump ship the moment they get a whiff of the sordid goings-on in the Corporation. They don't want to be held responsible for the mess," the Opposition Leader said.