Kozhikode: Apparently sporadic incidents of fire at the warehouses of the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Limited (KMSCL) have raised doubts whether they were handiwork of insiders with ulterior motives.
Such suspicion arose in the wake of a series of alleged corruption in purchase deals carried out by the state entity which supplies drugs and equipment to public hospitals in Kerala.
Soon after graft was suspected in purchase of bleaching powder, fire hazards were reported from KMSCL warehouses in Alappuzha, Kollam and Kozhikode districts. Another inferno that claimed a fireman's life meanwhile occurred at a godown in Thiruvananthapuram early this week.
On Friday, Manorama had reported that a clandestine deal likely took place over bleaching powder purchase. Now, the KMSCL has directed the companies which had supplied excess bleaching powder worth Rs 1 crore to take back the stock. This excess stock had been ordered even when KMSCL possessed adequate quantities of the chemical.
However, Banke Bihari Chemicals, a Lucknow-based firm which was one among the two companies which had delivered the chemical, has rejected the KMSCL’s request.
It is suspected that the KMSCL had asked the firms to take back the stock in order to protect the officers who were behind the allegedly shady deal. It is also suspected that the bleaching powder was purchased without quality checks.
High chlorine content
When the first fire occurred at the Kollam warehouse, a section of KMSCL staff itself had raised doubts about the quality of the bleaching powder stored there. In fact, an official at Kollam had tested its quality in his personal capacity and found the presence of 62 % chlorine, while the proportion stipulated for the health sector was only 32 per cent.
Meanwhile, the KMSCL also sent the stock for an authorized check, but it is yet to reveal the results.
New conditions stipulate that the product should contain 32% chlorine, have a shelf life of two years, and that it should be supplied in packages of 1 kg.
Chlorine is a yellow-green gas at room temperature. It is released naturally over time from bleaching powder and its proportion comes down. Consequently, the validity of tender procedures for bleaching powder is limited to six months. Stocks too are not stored for more than this period.
But, recently, the tender period was extended to two years. In order to maintain a chlorine content of 32 percent even after two years of manufacture, a very high amount of the gas has to be mixed to the chemical. This violates rules and several companies avoided the tender. The company which was willing to supply such bleaching powder was given the order by KMSCL without tender.
As reported earlier the order for buying 9,85,370 kg of bleaching powder was given to Parkins Enterprises (at Rs 47.08 per kg) and Banke Bihari Chemicals (at Rs 47.20 per kg). Only 60% of the quoted quantity was given to Parkins under the purchase order (2937 dated 30-07-2022). The remaining order, amounting to 7,45,070 kg, was given to Banke Bihari Chemicals.
