Delhi Vidhan Sabha's Petitions committee on Tuesday summoned the Principal Secretaries of the Health and Finance Departments, Amit Singla and Ashish Chandra Verma respectively, to record their testimonies for blocking salaries of employees and stopping lab tests at Mohalla Clinics. Giving details about the matter, AAP Leader Saurabh Bhardwaj said that during the proceedings of the committee, it came to light that when the health department sent its file to the finance department for disbursal of salaries, the finance department asked for certain documents which were never asked for earlier. “For this meeting, we summoned some senior government officers. Among them, Verma, a 1994-batch officer and Singla, who is a 2003-batch IAS officer were present. We also summoned Sanjeev Jain, Rawat, Nutan (DG Health) and Dr Shelly Kabra, the project coordinator of Mohalla Clinics, to give their statements on the matter,” told Bhardwaj.
“During the meeting, the committee was informed that 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,” AAP leader claimed. “Accordingly, the health department officials have told this under the oath. The members of the committee believe that this was done with the deliberate intention to delay the salaries of these doctors and nursing staff.
We believe that Verma was also involved in taking this decision. What came as a bigger surprise to us all was the fact 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 to not use this money,” he said.
“We also found out that the Verma had put certain conditions on the health department due to which they were not allowed to use this unspent money of theirs,” he stated.
“Singla has been ordered by the committee to henceforth visit at least three mohalla clinics on a daily basis and take stock of things and make suggestions to improve the facility that is being provided to the residents of Delhi,” he 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,” Bhardwaj said.
“It is very unfortunate that the salaries of Mohalla Clinic employees were withheld for three months due to such behaviour. Doctors and employees of these clinics have not been paid their remuneration. The payment of companies conducting tests in clinics was also stopped for several months, due to which those companies stopped conducting the free tests,” Bhardwaj added.