After HC rap,govt nod to CBI for prosecution of 22 doctors

In May,the CBI had sent its list of 22 doctors and five employees to the government for permission to prosecute them.

With the government sitting on the request,Justices Imtiyaz Murtaza and Ashwani Kumar Singh of Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court,on August 23,directed Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Sanjay Agrawal to take a decision and inform the court by August 29.

On Monday,Additional Advocate General (AAG) Raj Bahadur Singh Yadav said the government had given the sanction for the prosecution of 22 doctors and two officials. He said: “We will be submitting an affidavit regarding the prosecution sanction before the HC on August 29.”

The CBI had registered two separate cases related to the irregularities in Lucknow following a High Court order on July 27 last year. While one case is related to Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) and District Blindness Control Programmes,both NRHM schemes, the other case is related to irregularities in the Janani Suraksha Yojna.

The doctors named in the first case include district TB officer Dr K K Saxena,ACMO and district programme manager Dr Chitra Singh,ACMO Dr R B Lal,superintendents of Bal Mahila Chikitsalayas (BMCs) Dr Sumedha Yadav (Jugul Kishore Road),Dr Anju Bala (Nawal Kishore Road),Dr Rekha Chaudhary (Red Cross Qaiserbagh),Dr Anjali Pant (Indira Nagar) and Dr C K Jaiswal and Dr Chitra Saxena (both of Aliganj BMC).

The superintendents of community health centres (CHCs) include Dr A K Mishra (Gosainganj),Dr K N Anand and Dr S K Trivedi (both Mohanlalganj),Dr R K Gupta (Bakshi ka Talab),Dr M K Singh (Sarojininagar) and Dr A K Pathak (Chinhat). The medical officers at BMCs facing charges are Dr Sadhna Tripathi (Indira Nagar),Dr Kusum Lata Gautam (Aishbagh),Dr Neeta Srivastava (Chander Nagar Alambagh) and Dr Maya Chaudhary (Jugul Kishore Road).

The government has also given prosecution sanction against two employees including District Health Education & Information Officer Neelima Singh and District Administrative Officer Chandrajeet Yadav,in both the cases.

The CBI had also sought prosecution sanction against Health Education Officer of Mohanlalganj Community Health Centre Kamlesh Singh and clerk at Lucknow CMO office P C Verma in the first case besides Chandrajeet Yadav and Neelima Singh. But,the sanction is not given against Kamlesh and Verma so far.

The doctors who are facing charges in another case include former Lucknow CMO Dr A K Shukla,ACMO Dr A K Chaudhary,ACMO and District Programme Manager Dr Chitra Singh and superintendents of Bal Mahila Chikitsalayas (BMCs) Dr Deepa Bharti (Aishbagh),Dr C K Jaiswal and Dr Chitra Saxena (both of Aliganj),Dr Anjali Pant (Indira Nagar) and Dr Sumedha Yadav (Jugul Kishore Road).

The CBI had sought sanction to prosecute Sanjay Anand,a clerk with the Family Welfare Department,in another case,but was turned down. According to sources,irregularities in RCH programme and District Blindness Control Programme include payments released on fake bills against hiring of private vehicles for RCH programme,which actually were never hired and also making payments for the bills raised against fuel for ambulances.

The payments were also made to private firms and contractors against fake bills for manpower and publicity material in both the schemes. The investigation also found that money was paid against fake bills for vehicles shown as hired for vaccination under RCH programme,but the accused could not provide the details of the hired vehicles. Over Rs 20 lakh was found to be embezzled in the scheme.