We are aware that the Kumbh festival was held from April 1 to 30 in Haridwar. During that time the court had ordered Uttarakhand to carry out at least 50,000 tests daily to track virus spread while Kumbh.
As per reports, nearly four lakh tests in this period were conducted by nine agencies and 22 private labs. The state department also carried out its own tests through government labs.
Now, this collection of samples turned out to be a big scam in a recent investigation. The latest reports reveal that at least 1 lakh test reports were forged by a private agency.
The investigation reports revealed several addresses and phone numbers used were fake. Reportedly, in one case, a single phone number was used to register over 50 people while one antigen test kit was used to test 700 samples.
“The agency was supposed to submit these collected samples to two private labs, which are also under investigation,” said Kumbh Mela health officer Dr Arjun Singh.
Haridwar district magistrate C Ravishankar had ordered a probe into this and the investigation is underway. The government has also put the pending payments of all agencies on hold until further notice. A detailed investigation report is awaited.