The Health and Family Welfare Minister Surendra Singh Negi has said that strict action would be taken against the health department officials involved in the fuel scam.  The Minister said this while talking with newsmen here on Tuesday. He said that Government is seeking legal opinion on the issue based on which the future course of action would be taken.

It is worth mentioning here that some serving and retired Chief Medical Officers (CMO) colluded with some travel agencies and siphoned large amount of public money by producing fake travel bills. Interestingly a forged letter of Chief Minister’s office was also used in the scam.

When the scam surfaced the Director General (DG) of state health services constituted an inquiry committee headed by Director Medical health Dr lK Gusain to investigate the issue. The committee had submitted its report to the state government last month for necessary action.

It is learnt that the five member committee has found some CMOs guilty of the gross misconduct and misappropriation of accounts in the scam. Sources revealed that as many as eight serving and some retired CMOs are involved in the scam which involved fake bills.  Shockingly some of these officials did not even reply to the show cause notice given by the investigation committee.

The departmental sources revealed that the scam involves the CMO offices of Udham Singh Nagar, Tehri, Dehradun and Haridwar. The delay in the action on part of the government is giving rise to speculation that it is trying to shield the CMO’s indicted in the scam.