Shatru’s diagnosis: Staff is the problem

Here’s what Sinha said: ‘‘I request the Health Secretary to kindly fix the responsibility for devising the schemes on officers in the Ministry and also make it very clear to them that any lapse in this regard would be reflected in their ACRs.’’

Sinha was away in Mumbai, and was unavailable for comment. ‘‘The minister is out of town,’’ said an official in his office.

The December-17 note is directly related to the criticism over Sinha’s absence from the ministry and Parliament. Keen on proving that he was working towards setting things right, he asked his officers in mid-December to draft a glowing letter to the Prime Minister detailing the schemes ‘‘executed’’. The letter, apparently, wasn’t as glowing as it should have been and Sinha told Naik just that.

‘‘I have gone through the draft letter to the PM. I am sorry to observe that the said draft was very sketchy and covered only some of the points that I had communicated through my Personal Secretary (PS) to the Secretary (Health) and the Special Secretary (Health). Further, the draft was submitted to me only on December 12 instead of December 9 which I had indicated as the deadline for submitting this letter,’’ Sinha said.

The letter that Sinha finally sent to the Prime Minister was an exhaustive record of several grandiose schemes — from opening a medical college and hospital in all rural areas to setting up medical institutes in all major cities.

Sinha warned the bureaucrats to devise these schemes within 15 days or face a bad ACR. Naik maintained that the note was an ‘‘internal matter’’. ‘‘These things needn’t concern anyone except people within the department,’’ he told The Indian Express. But the note has managed to rattle officials in the ministry.

‘‘It’s a case of a bad workman blaming his tools. The minister is being attacked for not being here and he has started attacking us. What does he mean by this note?’’ grumbled an official.