Patna,(BiharTimes): A day after the submission of report by Anand Kishore Committee the state government on Saturday recommended suspension of Managing Director of Bihar Medical Services & Infrastructure Corporation (BMSICL), Praveen Kishore, an Indian Revenue Service official, and dismissed its General Manager (Finance and Accounts) Tripurari Kumar and suspended four state officials in this connection. In all action has been taken against 10 serving and one retired official.
Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation MD D K Shukla has been given additional charge of BMSICL MD.
According to the spokesman of the State health department, Anil Kumar, the suspended officials include Director-in-Chief (Health Services) Dr Surendra Prasad, State Drug Controller Hemant Kumar Sinha, Deputy Director (Industries) Om Prakash Pathak and the then Deputy Superintendent of PMCH Dr Bimal Karak. Departmental proceedings will also be initiated against retired Additional Director of State Health Society (SHS) Dr D K Raman.
All these officials were members of the Technical Evaluation Committee of the BMSICL, which did not oppose to the proposals of drug firms, including those which were blacklisted in other states.
A PIL was filed in the Patna high court in this regard. The Court then directed Principal Secretary (Health) Deepak Kumar to investigate the matter. The latter constituted a probe committee headed by Secretary (Health) Anand Kishore.
The government had in January last handed over the probe to a five-member committee headed by Additional Director (Health) Dr K K Singh. The panel reported medicine were procured by the BMSICL at prices higher by 20 to 372 per cent than the prices finalized by SHS.
The probe report submitted to the government by Kishore on Friday almost ratified the findings of Dr Singh panel, stating the prices at which BMSICL bought drugs were higher by 10 to 300 per cent than the prices finalized by SHS.
The Kishore panel also confirmed the BMSICL conveyed the information about a substandard anaesthetic to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, Bhagalpur, two months after a Delhi laboratory reported it to be substandard. In this meantime Arvind Sah, a patient of Banka district, died at the hospital on the operation table after he was administered the anaesthetic. 
The government also issued a show-cause notice to Bhagalpur hospital superintendent Dr R C Yadav in this connection.
Though the scam gave the BJP an opportunity to open a new front against the government it also divided the saffron party as leaders like Dr C P Thakur strongly opposed the manner in which Sushil Kumar Modi has been taking up the issue. There is a feeling in a section of the BJP that Sushil Modi is not only targeting former CM Nitish Kumar, who held the portfolio of health for 11 months, but also three successive former health ministers, who all belong to the BJP.
Another BJP leader, Rameshwar Chaurasia, while demanding a CBI probe, claimed that the medicine scam is as big as fodder scam. Yet no BJP leader, even SuMo, has filed a PIL as they did in the fodder scam in 1990s.