Haryana medical scam: Will the Opposition succeed in making it a poll issue
The alleged scam regarding the purchase of medicines and equipment at inflated costs for public hospitals in Haryana has the potential to increase the Bharatiya Janata Party's problems before the Lok Sabha elections next year. It can also mar re-election chances of the Manohar Lal Khattar government.
The allegations came Sunday from Dushyant Chautala of Indian National Lok Dal, who represents Hisar in Lok Sabha. Khattar's government bought implements, medicines, cotton rolls, face masks, pregnancy strips and hand sanitisers at inflated cost in Rewari, Hisar, Fatehabad, Rohtak and Jind districts, Chautala alleged citing information received through the Right to Information Act.
The civil surgeon in Fatehabad procured face masks for Rs 4.90 while it was available there for 95 paise only, Chautala alleged. Similarly, 500 gram cotton rolls were bought for Rs 140 each but they could have been purchased at Rs 99 at the tender rate. Digital blood pressure costs were Rs 1,600 – more than double of Rs 780 normally. Hand sanitizers (400 ml) procured for Rs 325 could have been bought for Rs 185.
Some blood collection tubes were procured for thrice the market rate from a firm in Hisar whose owner is in jail for minting fabricated coins.
“The firms, shown in the RTI-stamped papers, from which the medicines or equipment were purchased, do not exist,” Chautala said. “One company from which medicines were purchased is registered to sell daily-need items. In another case, the address of the firm turned out to be that of a washer man’s shop,” he added.
The purchases were under National Health Mission and Mukhya Mantri Muft Ilaaj Yojana. Three firms were shown operating from the same address in Hisar and Fatehabad. In Rewari the purchase committee obtained six drugs from a Hisar firm that does not have license to supply drugs. It was also supplying drugs to Fatehabad.
The INLD alleged that instead of deciding on suppliers through tendering, quotations were invited only at the level of civil surgeons. In Rohtak, it alleged, procurements worth Rs 3 crore were done without any committee being formed. RTI papers show no signature, date or letter numbers in such.
According to Chautala, state authorities were reluctant to part with information, which was eventually obtained after the intervention of Punjab and Haryana High Court.
“Rewari was a classic case of denial of information. They gave over 5,000 pages of information. All the papers were photo copies of electricity bills of hospitals. But one page was related to the purchase of medicines. This page turned out to be the tip of the iceberg,” Chautala reportedly said, underlining that it took his party around a year to collect information.
The INLD has pegged the scam at Rs 125 crore in the five districts alone and apprehended it could go up to more than Rs 300 cr. The party demanded that the matter be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij has already recommended that the Comptroller and Auditor General look into the matter. The state government distributed Rs 87.60 cr under Mukhyamantri Muft Ilaaj Yojana and National Health Mission from 2014 to 2017, of which only Rs 40.89 cr was spent, Vij said, questoning the INLD's Rs 300-cr claim.
Vij said civil surgeons have been directed to purchase products online. Calling Chautala's allegations “baseless and misleading” he contested the allegations district wise armed with his own set of papers. The minister claimed face masks in Fatehabad 2,000 triple layer sterilized masks were bought through e-tendering at Rs 4.90 each. The 1,000 masks mentioned by the INLD were common ones that cost 95 paise a piece.
Some observers pointed out that irregularities under health schemes were nothing new in Haryana, particularly in remote districts. However, what remains to be seen this time is whether the INLD is able to make an electoral issue out of it.
