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Jamshedpur MLA Saryu smells medicine scam, writes to Speaker
“The state health minister had given a misleading reply to my question regarding this matter in the assembly on March 17 this year. This amounts to contempt of the House and calls for action for contempt against the health minister (Banna Gupta) and the health department,” Roy wrote in his letter to Speaker Mahato.
Saryu Roy, Jamshedpur (East) MLA, has written to the Jharkhand assembly Speaker, Rabindranath Mahato, requesting him to initiate lawful action into an alleged medicine purchase scam in the state health department, people close to the development said on Saturday.
“I have requested the state assembly Speaker to initiate lawful action regarding the medicine purchase scam - purchasing medicines at higher prices than the lowest price quoted in the tenders from nominated suppliers, violating established norms and rules of the government,” Roy told HT on Saturday.
“The state health minister had given a misleading reply to my question regarding this matter in the assembly on March 17 this year. This amounts to contempt of the House and calls for action for contempt against the health minister (Banna Gupta) and the health department. The minister had told the House that buying medicine from Central Government agencies was mandatory, but this wasn’t true, as per the Union chemistry and fertilizers ministry directive,” Roy wrote in his letter to Mahato.
Roy further said that the health minister promised in the House to get the matter investigated and form a three-member committee comprising mission director (National Health Mission) Bhuvnesh Pratap Singh, additional secretaries in the health department Alok Trivedi and Jai Kishor Prasad (all of them IAS officers).
“The health minister told the House that the committee would submit its report within 30 days from March 16, 2023, when the committee was formed. However, the committee has not submitted any probe report as of now. In the meantime, the health ministry dissolved this committee and formed another committee consisting only of junior officers on August 7 this year. But no report came even after six months. This shows how serious the minister and the health department are about the assembly and the statements given therein,” Roy’s letter, a copy of which is with HT, stated.
Roy alleged that Banna Gupta misled even the state cabinet regarding the health department’s resolution 102(6), dated 09.02.2021, based on which medicines were purchased by the Jharkhand Medical and Health Infrastructure Development and Procurement Corporation Ltd (JMHIDPCL), managing director (MD) of which is the special secretary in the health department.
“This matter is directly linked to the corruption by the health minister in purchasing medicines at much higher prices from suppliers notified by the Central Government. He misled the Cabinet and hid the fact that the medicines were purchased from nominated suppliers under paragraph 245 of financial rules by diluting paragraph 235. The Cabinet was not told that the medicines were purchased at 3-4 times higher prices than the lowest price quoted in the tenders and that too from nominated suppliers,” Roy alleged in his letter.
Meanwhile, health minister Banna Gupta refused to comment on the allegations, calling them “baseless”.
