More firms under lens

Two separate FIRs have been lodged against three officials of the Family Welfare department and the ousted Lucknow CMO A K Shukla since Wednesday.

With the submission of the fresh report,names of a few more firms and officials of the department are expected to be included in the FIRs that were lodged earlier.

The new report,which was handed over to DGP Karamvir Singh,has mentioned names of six firms and their proprietors besides about 14 employees of the Health and Family Welfare departments alleging their involvement in fund embezzlement under various NRHM contracts.

The report,however,has not given details of the amount allegedly siphoned off. Instead it has mentioned various NRHM schemes in which the irregularities have been detected. The investigating officer has sought more time to find out the amount of the government money that were paid on fake bills.

The report has stated that majority of the irregularities relate to upgradation of Community Health Centres (CHCs) and construction of the new buildings for the hospitals in rural areas,drug procurement,immunisation programme and providing medical facilities through ambulances. For example,in the bills related to travelling,the amount quoted as taxi fare doesn’t match the distance travelled,said sources.

The scrutiny of the relevant documents has revealed only six firms were given the contracts on a regular basis. While two of these firms had been working for last two years,others were getting the work for the last one year since the post of CMO (Family Welfare) was created. Sources said the probe team is now scrutinising the bills issued against drug procurement,hiring of private taxis and security guards,consumption of petrol and diesel for vehicles and the generator sets and release of funds for the construction work of the CHCs.

Interestingly,many relevant documents have gone missing. The DGP,Karamvir Singh was not available for comments despite being contacted several times.