NRHM scam: CBI to file chargesheet against 22 officials

Among the 22 officials of the Health and Family Welfare Departments are former chief medical officers and other doctors. The CBI had sought sanction to prosecute the officials about a month ago,but the state government is dragging its feet on the issue,sources said.

However,in order to avoid legal problems later,the CBI will file the chargesheet under various provisions of the IPC,not the Prevention of Corruption Act. Besides officials,the agency is likely to name eight owners of private firms in the chargesheet. The agency has not made any arrest in this case so far.

The Allahabad High Court had entrusted the investigation to the CBI on July 27 last year. Soon,the agency has to file a status report in the court. While it has completed the investigation,it cannot file the chargesheet as the state government has so far not given the sanction to prosecute officials.

The doctors in question include former Lucknow CMO Dr A K Shukla,Dr Chitra Singh,Dr R B Lal,Dr A K Chaudhary,Dr Charan Jeet Yadav and officials including Dinesh Singh,Sanjay Anand and Prem Chand Verma. Others include BSP MLC Ram Chandra Pradhan’s wife Anita,his close friend Agha Rizwan and owners of Ahmedabad-based M/S Biotech Vision,M/S Jain Medical Hall of Moradabad,M/S Cee Kay Hospitals & Suppliers of Kanpur and M/S Rama Enterprises,M/S Omega Security Services and M/S Omraj Enterprises of Lucknow.

The accused are facing charges of irregularities in supply of ambulances,medicines,medical equipment,publicity material,building material and manpower under NRHM schemes of District Blindness Control Programme,Urban Reproductive & Child Health and Janani Suraksha Yojna.

The private firms had supplied medical equipment,ambulances,security guards,manpower for class IV staff,generators and private vehicles required for Urban Reproductive & Child Health scheme and Janani Suraksha Yojna.

The scrutiny of the documents had shown most of the patients who underwent cataract surgery under blindness control programme actually did not exist. A few of the NGOs had carried out cataract operations without seeking proper authorisation from the CMO. Besides,the documents with names of security guards,class IV employees and the number of the private vehicles were missing from the hospitals and the family welfare department headquarters.

Dr A K Shukla,medical superintendents of Lucknow-based four community health centres and ex-Chief Medical Superintendents of three district hospitals of Lucknow have been accused of irregularities in the NRHM schemes.

Pradhan’s wife and Agha Rizwan have been accused of irregularities in supply of building material and labour for construction of Auxiliary Nurse & Midwife centres on the outskirts of Lucknow.