Rahul Gandhi had accused the centre of purchasing sub-standard products (File)
New Delhi:
Ventilator-manufacturer AgVa today hit back at Rahul Gandhi, saying the former Congress chief is not a doctor and they would be “happy to give him a demonstration” of their product. Some of the ventilators procured to tackle the coronavirus outbreak have been bought from indigenous manufacturer AgVa through the PMCares fund, in accordance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Self-Reliant India” initiative.
Mr Gandhi, who has been continuing his attack on the government over the handling of the pandemic, had accused it of purchasing sub-standard products.
His July 5 tweet on the subject read: “#PMCares opacity is: 1. Putting Indian lives at risk. 2. Ensuring public money is used to buy sub-standard products.”
AgVa Healthcare said their ventilators cost Rs 1.5 lakh while others are priced between Rs 10-15 lakh
With it, he had tagged a news report from Huffpost, headlined, “PMCARES Ventilator Maker AgVa Fudged Software To Hide Poor Performance, Ex-Employees Say”.
Huffpost had reported that technical committee at Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital had said that these ventilators — designed and modified for coronavirus treatment — are no substitute to high-end ventilators.
Professor Diwakar Vaish, co-founder AgVa Healthcare, said indicated that the allegations were a result of upsetting the foreign cartel which supplies high-end ventilators to India.
“Our ventilator is 5-10 times cheaper, normally it costs 10-15 lakh, ours is for 1.5 lakh. International vendor nexus is very strong in this market, will they appreciate success of indigenous products?” he said.
