The offices of the Health and Family Welfare Department in the ground floor of the State Secretariat building on May 18 caught fire in the afternoon causing panic among the employees.
The details of the loss owing to fire are still to be made public by the authorities. It is known for certain that the electrical works during renovation work by the favoured contractors resulted in such a dreaded fire. It is established prima-facie that the low quality work was always performed in the department under a tender fixing system allegedly engineered at the behest of a cunning desk officer presently promoted and posted as Under Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Department. It is also confirmed after investigation that the designated officer was also in charge of caretaker of the department. Juiciest gossips by the department employees further reveal that the same desk officer was fairly and squarely responsible for many anomalies, nepotism, gross corruptions like tender fixing, purchase of computer consumables and providing employment through outsourcing and the like. Officials preferring anonymity told this correspondent that the official’s high handedness went unabated since he always remains as the blue eyed boy of the mandarins of the Health administration.
All complaints, prayers and petitions to remove the erring official from his chosen post fell in deaf ears since he maneuvered to grease the palms of his superiors.
It is surprising to note that the official overstayed in the department in a paying seat even after staying six years throwing all norms to the winds as the impugned Additional Secretary is dear to the Minister of Health. The employees of the department of Health and Family Welfare still hope that the Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary of the Health Department should decisively intervene to bring the cat out of the bag and set the house in order for the larger interest of the administration and justice.