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| Crores outstanding, 'patronised' chemist refuses to pay | | Health Ministry's anti-corruption drive? | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 2: A deep-rooted nexus seems to be behind a Chemist's grandiosity in deliberately refusing to pay crores of rupees to Government Hospital Sarwal where he is running a hospital owned fair-price shop since the last many years.
According to official documents available with Early Times, the fair price shop was allotted on the basis of tendering. Highest bidder was allotted the shop and according to the terms and conditions of the tender, the allottee had to pay Rs. 38 Lakh as bid money on yearly basis. His pending dues are Rs. 38 lakh each for years 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15. The owner, Rajinder Medical Hall has since then deposited just Rs. 18.50 Lakh and official documents available with Early Times clearly reveal that he still owes more than Rs. 1 crore to the State Government.
Sources said that the owner is often seen in the company of Health Minister and it is this closeness because of which neither Director Health Services (DHS) nor the present Medical Superintendent of Sarwal Hospital are exerting any pressure on the chemist shop owner to immediately make the payments which otherwise, he has to pay on yearly basis without even being served the notice since he has signed the tender document and agreed for the same.
But being the company of Health Minister has given this chemist the license to manipulate and trample rules and regulations as per his convenience. It needs to be mentioned here that it is this Chemist who recently got a medical shopping mall inaugurated by the Health Minister and was seen prominently in all the photographs published by all the leading newspapers, seated next to Choudhary Lal Singh. The trail of official letters sent to the fair price shop owner is detailed below.
An enquiry committee was constituted by Director Health Services Jammu vide Govt. order No. DHS-J/legal/358-361 dated 09-08-2014 into the non-payment of bidding amount by Rajinder Medical Hall. The committee submitted its report to the Director who expressed satisfaction over the report and vide letter No. DHS-J/ACCTT/Sch/2014-15/2056 dated 30-12-2014 directed Medical Superintendent of Sarwal Hospital to ask the allottee to deposit the balance amount due on accounting of bidding money amounting to Rs. 95 Lakh 50 thousand in the account of Rogi Kalyan Samiti (RKS) of the hospital within a week's time.
Director's letter notes with concern that the allottee has been running his shop smoothly in the premises of the hospital without paying even a single penny to the State exchequer. The Director has in this letter asked the then Medical Superintendent to initiate action under rules against the allottee if he fails to deposit the outstanding amount within a week's time. The then Medical Superintendent vide letter No. SHJ/1004-06 dated 31-12-2014 requested the allottee Rajinder Medical Hall to deposit the amount within week's time while adding that appropriate action would be initiated after the time limit will be over.
However, official sources said that the allottee did not heed of this letter and instead, approached aides and advisors of Minister for Health and Medical Education. They added that the then Medical Superintendent repeatedly wrote letters to the allottee of the fair price shop who kept ignoring the same for the obvious reasons. The Medical Superintendent issued him another notice vide letter No. SHJ/2650-52 dated 20-01-2015 pleading with him to deposit Rs. 95 lakh of outstanding bid money. But again, there was no response.
Instead, if the sources are to be believed, aides and advisors of Health Minister began pressurising the then Medical Superintendent to stop sending notices to the allottee Rajinder Medical Hall. But the Medical Superintendent preferred doing his job well and send him another notice vide letter No. SHJ/3076 dated 04-03-2015, telling him that he should treat this as final notice and deposit the outstanding amount within 15 days in the RKS account of Government Hospital Sarwal.
The Medical Superintendent kept the tempo up before he was unceremoniously shifted out of Sarwal Hospital on October 2, 2015. Thereafter, the new Medical Superintendent Dr. Gurmeet Kour took over and if the sources are to be believed, even she has been unable to extract even a single penny out of the amount due with Rajinder Medical Hall. Sources said that the accountant has told the Medical Superintendent not to touch the issue since it is pending in the court of law.
On enquiry, Early Times found out that there is no case on the pending bid amount but one Shivani Medicos has gone to the court against the allotment of shop. Besides, court has not restricted the State from asking the allottee to pay the due bidding amount. More importantly, the allottee has not even paid rent of the shop he owns in the premises.
A notice has been recently issued to him for paying the same within shortest possible time. With this situation, it is to be seen whether some agency in the Government takes suo-motto cognizance and pulls up the allottee for not paying the amount due towards him. |
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