Covid-19 prevention goods are flying off the shelves of the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), the government’s e-procurement portal, with sales to the tune of ₹400 crore so far.
The state governments of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi are on the forefront, making maximum such purchases from the portal worth ₹105 crore and ₹75 crore, respectively. This includes governments and public enterprises buying in bulk goods like alcohol-based hand sanitisers, masks, PPEs, floor cleaners and surgical gloves from nearly 17,000 sellers.
The last two weeks have seen the maximum procurement from the GeM portal worth ₹67 lakh. Enthused by the response and bringing in price control of such items, the GeM portal has added ‘infrastructure’ categories to its portal regarding Covid-19, which will include the sale of equipment to set up ICU Wards, Isolation wards for asymptomatic and mild symptom patients and basic facilities for Covid hospital.
The Union Health Ministry has also asked states to also directly buy Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) from the suppliers onboarded on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal in addition to the supplies of PPEs being sent by the Centre.
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