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By:

Rajendra Joshi

3 December 2024 at 3:50:26 am

Procurement first, infrastructure later

Procurement at multiples of market price; equipment before infrastructure; no accountability Kolhapur: Maharashtra’s Medical Education and Public Health Departments have been on an aggressive drive to expand public healthcare infrastructure. Daily announcements of new centres, advanced equipment and expanded services have reassured citizens long denied dependable public healthcare. Procurement of medical equipment, medicines and surgical supplies is reportedly being undertaken at rates two to...

Procurement first, infrastructure later

Procurement at multiples of market price; equipment before infrastructure; no accountability Kolhapur: Maharashtra’s Medical Education and Public Health Departments have been on an aggressive drive to expand public healthcare infrastructure. Daily announcements of new centres, advanced equipment and expanded services have reassured citizens long denied dependable public healthcare. Procurement of medical equipment, medicines and surgical supplies is reportedly being undertaken at rates two to ten times higher than prevailing market prices. Basic economics dictates that bulk government procurement ought to secure better rates than private buyers, not worse. During the Covid-19 pandemic, equipment and consumables were procured at five to ten times the market rate, with government audit reports formally flagging these irregularities. Yet accountability has remained elusive. The pattern is illustrated vividly in Kolhapur. The Dean of Rajarshi Shahu Government Medical College announced that a PET scan machine worth Rs 35 crore would soon be installed at Chhatrapati Pramilaraje (CPR) Government Hospital for cancer diagnosis. But a comparable machine is available in the market for around Rs 6.5 crore. A senior cancer surgeon at a major cancer hospital in western Maharashtra, where a similar machine was recently installed, remarked that the gap between what his hospital paid and what the government is reportedly paying was enough to make one ‘feel dizzy’. The label of a ‘turnkey project’ does not adequately explain a price differential of this magnitude. High Costs CPR Hospital recently had a state-of-the-art IVF centre approved at a sanctioned cost of Rs 7.20 crore. Senior fertility specialists across Maharashtra note that even a modern IVF centre with advanced reproductive technology equipment typically costs between Rs 2.5 crore and Rs 3 crore. The state’s outlay is reportedly approaching Rs 15 crore. Equipment arrived in June 2025 and lay idle for months owing to indecision about the site. Similarly, digital X-ray machines approved for CPR Hospital and a government hospital in Nanded; available in the market for roughly Rs 1.5 crore; were reportedly procured at Rs 9.98 crore per unit. Doctors in CPR’s radiology department, apprehensive about being drawn into potential inquiries, reportedly resisted accepting the equipment. One departmental head was transferred amid disagreements over signing off on the proposal. What’s Wrong These cases point to a deeper structural failure: Maharashtra has perfected what might be called the ‘equipment first, infrastructure later’ model. In any public hospital, the administrative sequence ought to be: identify space, create infrastructure, sanction specialist posts, and only then procure equipment. Compounding the procurement paradox is a parallel policy decision. On 20 December 2025, the state government decided to introduce radiology diagnostic services through a Public-Private Partnership model (PPP). Following this, an order issued on 6 February 2026 authorised private operators to provide PET scan, MRI and CT scan services at six government medical college hospitals: in Pune, Kolhapur, Miraj, Sangli, Mumbai and Baramati. CPR already has a 126-slice CT scan machine and a 3 Tesla MRI scanner, with another CT scan proposed. If the PPP arrangement proceeds, the hospital could simultaneously run one PET scan machine, two MRI scanners and three CT scan machines. Medical experts warn this could lead to unnecessary diagnostic testing simply to keep machines occupied, thus exposing patients to excess radiation while government-owned equipment gathers dust. A similar pattern was seen during the pandemic, when the Medical Education Department spent hundreds of crores on RT-PCR machines, only to award swab-testing contracts to a private company. Many of those machines remain unused today.

Convict Saquib Nachan dies, with many secrets

Mumbai: Twice convicted terrorist Saquib A. Nachan from Thane district passed away following brain hemorrhage at a New Delhi hospital while in judicial custody, official sources said.

 

Nachan, 65, nabbed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) 18 months ago, had collapsed following a massive stroke in the Tihar Jail on June 22.

 

First, he was rushed to the government-run Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital where the medicos diagnosed him with brain hemorrhage but he was not responding to treatment.

 

Later, as he was unconscious and remained critical, he was shifted to the Safdarjung Hospital where he breathed his last today. Further details are awaited.

 

As news of his passing spread, a team of cops led by Padgha Police Station head Police Inspector Jitendra Thakur visited the vicinity where the Nachan clan resides.

 

“The situation here is absolutely calm and peaceful,” Thakur told ‘The Perfect Voice’ later, without elaborating much.

 

Last week, security circles were agog with speculation that he may have passed away, but the air cleared after his son Aaquib and other relatives were summoned to New Delhi to meet him.

 

Long stint in jail

Hailing from the Borivali-Padgha twin villages in Bhiwandi taluka of adjoining Thane district, Nachan – who had spent two long stints in jail for different terror cases – was arrested by the NIA in December 2023.

 

This time, he was booked and lodged in prison for allegedly heading a terror module of the banned ISIS operating surreptitiously in Maharashtra.

 

The sleepy village of Padgha with a population of around 6000 people – more than 80 pc Muslims – shot to global headlines after the ISIS Maharashtra had unilaterally proclaimed it as ‘Al Sham’ or a liberated zone, and Nachan proclaiming himself as the organization’s state chief.

 

Among other things, the investigators were probing Nachan’s involvement with the dreaded ISIS terror outfit, his associates in the state and other parts of India, their global connections with like-minded organizations, their suspected penetration in this country, aspects pertaining to funds, weapons, and manpower recruitment for their nefarious plans – which may remain secret now.

 

A former state president and general secretary of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Nachan had spent nearly 20 years in prison following conviction in two separate terror cases.

 

He was first arrested and convicted by the Supreme Court in 1997 with a 10-year jail-term for hatching terror plots in connivance with Khalistani extremists.

 

Later, he was convicted by a Mumbai court for the 2002-2003 suburban train blasts, again for 10 years till his release in 2017.

 

Subsequently, the NIA had swooped on Padgha village in Dec. 2023 for probing the ISIS case and arrested Nachan plus many others. He remained in judicial custody till his demise today.

 

Who was Saquib A. Nachan

A former SIMI state president and general secretary plus a self-styled ISIS Maharashtra head, Nachan, 65, has been booked in over a dozen terror-related cases from the 1990s.

 

He was arrested and convicted twice – and spent 10 years in jail each time – for different terror cases. Nachan’s other associates were also convicted for different crimes.

 

Nachan was grudgingly acknowledged for his sharp legal acumen and fought his own cases as all bar association lawyers had boycotted him and his associates in the past.

 

The NIA raids in Dec. 2023 found that almost all the ISIS Maharashtra cells were operating from Borivali-Padgha with alleged conspiracies of violent jihadi acts in tune with ISIS’ plans to develop a strong base in India.

 

On June 2, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) carried out massive raids in Borivali-Padgha and rounded up around a dozen suspects, including past-present office-bearers of the SIMI.

 

The premises belonged to Nachan, plus Aaquib S. Nachan, Kaif Nachan, Shajil Nachan, Faraq Zubair Mulla and Abdul Latif Kaskar.

 

The ATS said that following reliable intel of certain anti-national activities and terror attacks being plotted, the agency swung into action, secured search warrants from the Thane Court and launched the search-cum-raids which yielded mobile phones, a sword, a chopper, property papers and literature pertaining to terrorism and radicalisation.

 

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