LG Approves ACB Probe Against Bharadwaj, Jain
New Delhi: Lieutenant governor VK Saxena on Tuesday gave his approval to the anti-corruption branch of Delhi govt to conduct an inquiry against former health ministers in AAP govt —
Satyendar Jain
and Saurabh Bharadwaj — in a case related to the construction and upgrade of hospitals.
The inquiry was ordered on a complaint by BJP's Vijender Gupta in Aug 2024, alleging "inexplicable delays and astronomical cost overruns indicating a large scale of fund siphoning" in 24 hospital projects, including 11 greenfield and 13 brownfield, approved for a total cost of Rs 5,590 crore.
The complainant alleged that seven ICU hospitals with a total bed capacity of 6,800 were sanctioned at a cost of Rs 1,125 crore for construction using pre-engineered structures within six months from Sept 2021, but only 50% of the work was completed in three years and Rs 800 crore was spent.
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It was further alleged that a new block in Lok Nayak Hospital was sanctioned for Rs 465 crore, but the cost increased to Rs 1,125 crore in just four years. Of 94 polyclinics sanctioned by the previous govt at a cost of Rs 168 crore, only 52 were built at an escalated cost of Rs 220 crore, the complaint added.
The BJP functionary also alleged deliberate stalling of the Health Information Management System and claimed that the ministers rejected "cost-effective solutions like NIC's e-hospital system."
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The LG office, in a statement, said the prima facie perusal of the complaint by the ACB found "consistent inflating" of project costs, deliberate delays by the department, rejection of cost-effective solutions, misallocation of funds and creation of idle assets. It termed these as "tactics and patterns of misconduct and corrupt activities," which resulted in a huge loss to the govt exchequer.
The ACB moved to the directorate of vigilance for prior approval under section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act to probe against Bharadwaj and Jain, which was forwarded to the health and family welfare department and Public Works Department for comments.
While the health and family welfare department said it had no objection to the inquiry, PWD also recommended the investigation of ICU hospitals, polyclinics and other projects; identification of instances of corruption, irregularities, and violation of laws and rules; and fixing of responsibility for wrongdoing, if any.
Forwarding the ACB's proposal along with the comments of the two departments to LG for the grant of sanction for investigation, the directorate of vigilance observed that the construction of hospitals was not completed in the stipulated time due to upgradation in specifications and facilities beyond the original provision after the award of work.
It added that due diligence in estimate preparation and planning was not done accurately, resulting in an increase in cost beyond the original sanctioned amount, and escalation of arbitration costs resulted in an unnecessary burden on the govt exchequer.
"The administrative department has failed to acknowledge some aspects and there can be some hidden facts and evidence in the matter that attracts an inquiry... to unearth the lapses… an in-depth inquiry is required," the directorate of vigilance observed on the file.
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