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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.

Grave Crisis

Updated: Mar 20, 2025

The violence in Nagpur over Aurangzeb’s tomb is an alarming sign of Maharashtra’s deteriorating law and order. A protest by right-wing groups seeking the removal of the Mughal emperor’s tomb descended into chaos, triggering communal riots that left dozens of police officers injured, vehicles torched and entire neighbourhoods in fear. That a mere rumour of desecration of a holy book could inflame passions to such an extent raises grave concerns about the state’s ability to contain mob violence. CM Devendra Fadnavis must take decisive action to restore public order before Maharashtra slides into anarchy.


A demonstration by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal activists in the Mahal area involved burning an effigy of Aurangzeb. Within hours, social media was flooded with unverified claims of a holy book’s desecration, sending thousands onto the streets in a frenzy. By nightfall, Nagpur was ablaze with arson and vandalism. The speed with which events escalated underscores the state’s failure to anticipate and neutralize such threats.


Police forces, caught napping, struggled to contain the violence, relying on lathi charges and tear gas to disperse rioters. Given that the Shiv Jayanti celebrations and the tomb protest occurred on the same day, authorities should have anticipated the potential for unrest. BJP leaders have claimed the violence was premeditated.


In recent months, Maharashtra has witnessed a disturbing pattern of lawless incidents, from the murder of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh to casteist violence in Beed to the rape of a woman in a bus stationed at Pune.


The government’s inability to curb misinformation and hold provocateurs accountable has emboldened extremists on both sides. The Maharashtra Police’s cyber wing is now investigating over 100 social media accounts suspected of spreading incendiary content, but damage control after the fact is hardly a substitute for pre-emptive governance.


The reaction from political leaders has been underwhelming. CM Fadnavis said the Mahayuti is committed to protecting Aurangzeb’s tomb as it is an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-designated site, but has insisted that its ‘glorification’ will not be tolerated.


Few symbols are as potent in Maharashtra’s politics as Aurangzeb’s legacy. The Mughal emperor who murdered Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj is a historical villain in the state’s nationalist imagination. But the Mughal’s tomb has been here for more than centuries. So, it is not history that is driving violence today rather the state government’s inability to maintain order. Allowing the state’s governance to be dictated by street-level provocateurs, be they from right-wing Hindu groups or radical Islamist factions, sets a dangerous precedent. Political leaders must rise above identity-based posturing and focus on restoring order.


The buck stops with CM Fadnavis. The government must abandon the performative rhetoric and get their act together. That means deploying a more robust intelligence apparatus, cracking down on those who incite violence regardless of their ideological leanings and ensuring that the rule of law prevails over mob justice. The state cannot afford to let Nagpur’s flames spread any further.

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