Among the agencies whose name has been thrown up by a recent review of the National Rural Health Mission in Uttar Pradesh by a Central team, following the murder of two chief medical officers (CMOs) and the mysterious death of a deputy CMO in prison, is the UP Processing and Construction Cooperative Federation (PACCFED).
When the state Family Welfare Department decided to place orders for civil construction under the NRHM, it gave bulk of the contracts, worth Rs 563.48 crore, to PACCFED.
It is a cooperative body. Technically, it is autonomous. Actually, it is controlled by the Cooperative Department of the government. And when it got these windfall orders in 2009-10 and 2010-11, Family Welfare Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha was also the Cooperative Minister. Kushwaha later resigned owning moral responsibility for the scam involving NRHM funds in the office of Lucknow’s CMO.
Meanwhile, BJP on Wednesday accused the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh of playing with the lives of the poor and weaker sections by “looting” public money allocated for National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and demanded a High Court-monitored CBI inquiry into the matter.
A BJP delegation led by party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Secretary Kirit Sommaiya met the CAG here to demand that an audit of the NRHM funds allocated for Uttar Pradesh should be done to see how the money was spent.
“The Mayawati government has indulged in yet another blatant act of looting public money by converting the NRHM into Mayawati Wealth Mission…The state government is playing with the health and lives of millions of poor, sick and downtrodden people,” Naqvi told reporters.
He maintained that the loot in NRHM was to the tune of Rs 3,700 crores.
“Ministers and bureaucrats close to the Chief Minister are playing the role of middlemen, whereby NRHM funded tenders were being assigned to agencies and individuals without
following set rules and procedures,” Naqvi said.
He charged the Central government with being equally guilty for the poor state of affairs as it is squarely responsible for monitoring programmes like NRHM.
“Even as Congress leaders make public statements against the Mayawati government, the Central government has taken no action against the UP government for either non- implementation or misuse and misappropriation of funds under NHRM. On the contrary, it keeps allocating more funds to UP,” Naqvi said.
He demanded a CBI inquiry into the NRHM scam under the supervision of the High Court.