Probe into NRHM scam gets nowhere

Rs 5000-crore racket in UP claims four lives so far, CBI gropes in dark

The scam in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) implementation in Uttar Pradesh, has so far claimed the lives of four senior government officials.

The scam, believed to be at least Rs 5,000 crore, is getting murkier by the day, with the investigation not progressing towards a logical conclusion.

The latest death is the purported suicide of Sunil Verma, an assistant engineer in the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam, yesterday. He was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) earlier this month.

Claiming innocence in his suicide note, Verma said he was perturbed by the CBI probe and accusations heaped upon him.

He was project manager with the construction and design services (C&DS) department of Jal Nigam, which handled NRHM-related civil works. His kin, however, maintain he was murdered and want the government to initiate a probe into the circumstances leading to his death.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said the NRHM scam spanned the previous regime of Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, and also current chief minister Mayawati.

Earlier, two chief medical officers (CMO) in the family welfare department, Vinod Arya and B P Singh, were shot dead in the state capital in October 2010 and April 2011 respectively.

In June 2011, double-murder accused, deputy CMO Y S Sachan, died in Lucknow district jail in mysterious circumstances. A contractor, Namit Tandon, reportedly tried to commit suicide by jumping before a running train after he was interrogated by CBI.

CBI is probing the NRHM case, and senior high profile people, including state principal secretary Pradeep Shukla, have been questioned. The case has already claimed Cabinet berths of two powerful ministers, Babu Singh Kushwaha and Anant Kumar Mishra, who had earlier held the family welfare and heath portfolios respectively. They were removed following the deaths of the two CMOs.

The CMO (family welfare) post was also scrapped.

In July 2011, the state government had referred the NRHM case to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

In the meantime, a petition was also filed in Allahabad High Court demanding a CBI probe into the case. the government then referred the case to the CBI to stave off criticism by the Opposition.

In its preliminary report, CBI pointed towards anomalies and irregularities while spending the Rs 7,800 crore allocated under NRHM to Uttar Pradesh.

CBI has so far arrested Jal Nigam general manager P K Jain, Moradabad-based medicine trader Saurabh Jain and others. Those questioned in the case include Kushwaha, legislative council member Ramchandra Pradhan, Women Commission member Anita Pradhan, among others.