Action against Kerala, Himachal groups for fraud in Tripura

The Tripura government has filed FIRs against two companies -- Kerala and Himachal Pradesh-based -- for their alleged fraudulent acts in providing health services here, officials said Thursday.

"A Himachal Pradesh-based drug manufacturing company supplied spurious and adulterated medicines to the Tripura government. After confirmation of the separate laboratory tests, the health department filed an FIR Wednesday with the police against the company," a state health department official said.

He said: "A separate FIR has also been filed last week against a Kerala-based educational group for financial misdeeds in setting up of a 100-seat medical college in Tripura under the public private partnership (PPP) model."

The official, on condition of anonymity, told reporters that the state government has initiated legal action against both the companies.

The Tripura government had signed an agreement with the Kerala-based group in 2004 to set up a medical college and a hospital under PPP the model. The group, however, left the state in 2009, leaving the government, students and its staff in utter confusion.

The major charge against the group is that it illegally secured a loan from the state-owned HUDCO (Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited) by mortgaging the properties of the medical college and hospital presently run by a state government-backed society.

The loan amount has risen to Rs.74.42 crore for which the Debts Recovery Tribunal last week served notices to the Tripura government and other people concerned.

Opposition Congress has demanded a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and judicial inquiry into the alleged fraudulent acts and financial misdeeds of the two companies.

"The Tripura government should set up an inquiry commission by a sitting high court judge and ask the CBI to find out all the irregularities committed by the two companies," opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath told reporters.