2 Haryana officials suspended for 'maligning' health department

Two Haryana Health Department officials were suspended on Thursday on the charge of maligning their department by supplying wrong information under the RTI Act.

Health Minister Anil Vij on Thursday issued the orders to suspend Superintendent Rohtas and Assistant Pankaj for providing wrong information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to a Gurugram resident and also ordered an investigation into the matter by a senior IAS officer.

The probe report will be submitted within a month.

"Providing wrong information to a Gurugram resident under the RTI Act, these officials had stated that no new hospital building had been constructed in Haryana after 2014. These officials deliberately gave such information that maligned the department's image," Vij said.

The Minister said that the BJP government, which came to power in October 2014, had not only completed buildings of hospitals approved by the previous Congress government, but also got new buildings constructed.

He said that 86 buildings approved during the then Congress government's rule were completed after 2014 and Rs 282.21 crore was spent on them.

"Similarly, our government got constructed 12 new buildings of hospitals at a cost of Rs 122.83 crore. Administrative approval has been given for the construction of 136 new buildings at a cost of Rs 643.41 crore," he pointed out.

Vij said that the BJP government has given approval to establish four new medical colleges and that the construction of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Medical University at Karnal and Shri Krishna Ayush University at Kurukshetra is in progress.

--IANS

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