Can’t rely on Centre’s NRHM report: govt

The petitioner’s counsel had earlier argued that the report had enough material for the court to refer the matter to the CBI. The argument was also supported by Additional Solicitor General of India Vivek Tankha.

Mathur,in his argument on Tuesday,said it was not an audit report but a field visit report. “It is like an essay on my visit to Nainital. It is merely a visit report and not an audit report,” said Mathur.

He argued the report was made in a hurry. “As per the report itself,the Central government constituted the visit team on May 9 and on May 10,the team was here,” said Mathur.

On May 11 and 12,they visited the Family Welfare Directorate,the Medical and Health Directorate and the Medical Education Directorate. Also,on May 13 and 14,the team visited as many as 11 districts.

“This indicates the haste with which the task of the present magnitude was done,” said an affidavit filed by the state government before the court on Tuesday.

“On the face of it,the visit report is a hastily prepared document which was hurriedly put together and cannot form the material which can be relied upon,” said the affidavit.

Elaborating the unreliability of the report,the state government brought on record “some instances of inaccurate,contradictory and baseless reporting”.

The report says that advances of Rs 93.62 crore were lying with the implementing agencies,comprising state agencies and outside parties. Mathur said that not a single penny was lying with the outside parties. While an amount Rs 63.23 crore was lying with the Director General Family Welfare,the remaining Rs 30.39 crore were with the implementing agencies,all government bodies.

Mathur said the field visit had comments on four districts,Fatehpur,Lalitpur,Jyotibaphulenagar and Muzzafarnagar,which the team did not visit.

Mentioning these flaws,Mathur said that the court cannot “put the stamp of approval” on the report which is not reliable and the report cannot form the basis of handing over the inquiry to CBI. “We get such visit reports everyday and handle them accordingly,” said Mathur.

The court asked the government of India to reply to the Mathur’s arguments and posted the hearing till Friday.

Ex-CMO Shukla gets bail

The bail application of former CMO of Lucknow Dr AK Shukla was accepted on Tuesday by the Special CBI court,Lucknow.

Shukla,who is the main accused in the the case related to corruption in NRHM in Lucknow CMO, has already been granted bail by the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court in the Sections of IPC. However,when the case was handed over to the CBI by the High Court,the CBI had added certain sections of Prevention of Corruption Act against Shukla. Shukla,whose initial bail plea was rejected by the Session Court,had moved the High Court,which granted him the bail on August 29. The HC had granted him bail in sections 409 (criminal breach of trust),419 (cheating by personation),420 (cheating),467 (forgery of valuable security,will,etc.),468 (forgery for purpose of cheating),471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record),474 (having possession of document described in Section 466 or 467,knowing it to be forged and intending to use it as genuine) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC. However,CBI had also booked him under section 13(2) (criminal misconduct),section 13 (1)(c) and 13(1)(b) of Prevention of Corruption Act. Shukla has been asked to file a personal bond and two sureties for Rs 50000 for the bail.