Delhi Assembly panel pulls up officers for blocking salaries, stopping lab tests at Mohalla Clinics

New Delhi [India], December 20 : Delhi Legislative Assembly Committee on Petitions pulled up senior officers for blocking the salaries of employees and stopping lab tests at Mohalla Clinics on Tuesday.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj, a member of the panel said in a press conference that, the Petitions Committee had summoned the Principal Secretaries of the Health and Finance Departments to record their testimonies.
"For the past three months, some doctors and other nursing staff of the mohalla clinics in Delhi had not been receiving their salaries timely. This was the case for the months of September, October and November. Several medical tests that usually are conducted for patients at the mohalla clinics have also not been happening now as the private partners in whose labs the test samples are to be analysed have also not received their funding," Bharadwaj said.
He said that the Delhi Vidhan Sabha had received a petition in this regard and therefore the committee decided to preside over the matter on Tuesday.
For this meeting, the Committee summoned some senior government officers including Principal Secretary (Finance) Ashish Chandra Verma, a 1994-batch officer and Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Singla, a 2003-batch IAS officer were present. The Committee also summoned Sanjeev Jain, Dr Nutan (DG Health) and Dr Shelly Kabra, the project coordinator of Mohalla Clinics, to record their statements on the matter.
During the meeting, the committee was informed that the file that was sent by the health department to the finance department to make available the grant to pay the salaries of doctors and other nursing staff was received by the finance department.
"But for the first time ever the finance department asked for some documents before disbursing the salaries, and these are documents that were never asked before the disbursement of salaries until now. They asked for certain Cabinet decisions and other amendments in the government documents. The health department officials have told this to us under the oath," the AAP MLA added.
Bharadwaj further said that the members of the committee believe that this was done with the deliberate intention to delay the salaries of these doctors and nursing staff.
He said, "We believe that the Principal Secretary (Finance) Ashish Chandra Verma was also involved in taking this decision. What came as a bigger surprise to us all was that the health department had an unspent amount of Rs 70 crore with it, and while only Rs 13 crore was required to provide the salaries of their staff members, they decided not to use this money. We also found out that the Principal Secretary (Finance) Ashish Chandra Verma had put certain conditions on the health department due to which they were not allowed to use this unspent money of theirs."
Bharadwaj noted that the committee was extremely unhappy with the action of Principal Secretary (Finance) Ashish Chandra Verma as it led to tests at mohalla clinics not being conducted and the people of Delhi have suffered due to his actions.
The committee, he said was also shocked to find out that the Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Singla has so far not visited a single mohalla clinic despite holding such an important government position. "Singla has been ordered by the committee to visit at least three mohalla clinics on a daily basis, take stock of things, and make suggestions to improve the facility that is being provided to the residents of Delhi," Bharadwaj said.
The AAP MLA said the Committee on Petitions has so far not taken a decision regarding this matter as it required certain documents from the officials.
"We have asked for the documents to be obtained at the earliest and a decision regarding this case will be taken later after reviewing the documents. Despite this unfortunate situation playing out in front of us, the committee has seen no remorse or sympathy from these officials. Once the committee goes through the documents that it has asked for, a decision on this matter will be taken by the Vidhan Sabha," added Bharadwaj.