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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.

Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde rejects rumours of rift in Mahayuti, asserts alliance remains united

  • PTI
  • Apr 14, 2025
  • 2 min read


Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has dismissed the speculation of a rift within the Mahayuti and said everything is hunky-dory in the ruling alliance.


The issues, if any, will be sorted out through discussions, Shinde told reporters on Sunday.


"There is no bickering within the Mahayuti. Everything is hunky-dory. We work and don't complain. We are the ones who fight," he said.


The Shiv Sena leader was reacting to reports that he has complained to Union Home Minister Amit Shah about Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who heads the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).


"If Eknath Shinde has to say something, he will directly talk to me or the chief minister (Devendra Fadnavis). We share good relations," Pawar told reporters.


Amid talk of Shinde raising contentious issues concerning the state's ruling alliance with Shah, BJP 's Sudhir Mungantiwar on Sunday also defended the Shiv Sena leader.


"Eknath Shinde is a good leader. He would not use such ways to raise complaints before Amit Shah. Shinde is such a leader who will not wait and raise it with Amit Shah. He would directly speak with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar," Mungantiwar told reporters.


The ruling alliance comprises the BJP, Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP. It retained power after a landslide victory in the state assembly polls held in November last year.


Shinde, who was chief minister from June 2022, however, had to be content with the deputy CM's post in the Devendra Fadnavis-led government formed after the polls.


During his visit to Maharashtra on Saturday, Shah attended an event at Raigad Fort to mark the 345th death anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.


NCP MP Sunil Tatkare on Saturday also hosted lunch for Shah at his house in Raigad, and described it as a "non-political" interaction with the issue of guardian ministers not on its agenda.


Local Shiv Sena leaders didn't attend the lunch, further fuelling speculation that all was not well in the BJP-led Mahayuti over the allotment of posts of guardian ministers in Raigad and Nashik.


Notably, Sunil Tatkare's daughter and NCP MLA Aditi Tatkare is one of the contenders for the post of the Raigad district guardian minister, but is facing opposition from Shiv Sena MLA Bharat Gogawale.


The Fadnavis-led Mahayuti government had to stay the appointment of Aditi Tatkare and BJP leader Girish Mahajan as guardian ministers of Raigad and Nashik and districts, respectively, in January this year due to opposition from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.


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