Patna,(BiharTimes): As expected the Janata Dal (United) on Saturday turned the table on the BJP when it charged three former health ministers of being involved in gross irregularities in the medicine purchase scam between 2005 and 2013.
Its MLA Manjit Kumar Singh accused Ashwini Kumar Choubey of hiding a report on the large scale irregularities in purchase and supply of medicine between November 24, 2005 and June 16, 2013 when the health ministers were from the BJP.
The purchase continued even after an adverse report from Central Research Institute, Kasauli, in 2010, he said.
Chandra Mohan Rai was health minister from November 24, 2005, to April 13, 2008, Nand Kishore Yadav from April 14, 2008, to November 24, 2010, and Ashwini Kumar Choubey from November 26, 2010, to June 16, 2013. It was on this day whea Nitish snapped ties with the BJP.
Talking to the media Manjit Kumar Singh said that the then health minister Ashwini Choubey had accepted in the Assembly, in December 2011, that prohibited medicine were purchased from blacklisted firms but no action was taken against defaulters.
The ruling party MLA has sought a judicial inquiry into it. He was more critical of Nand Kishore Yadav and Ashwini Choubey because during their stint as health ministers, the State Health Society (SHS) continued to buy banned drugs from blacklisted companies. They were then supplied to different government hospitals in full knowledge of both ministers.
He alleged that several persons lost their lives after consuming those medicine.
According to him the Gopalganj civil surgeon had purchased inferior quality snake venom, anti-serum, in 2011. They were later supplied to all primary health centres of the district. Four persons lost their lives after being given this drug.
He said he had raised the medicine scam issue in the Assembly in December 2011 and had asked why no action was initiated against the defaulters.
The MLA said that in his reply, Ashwini Choubey had said samples of the snake venom anti-serum had been sent to the Central Research Institute, Kasauli, for inspection and action would be taken against defaulters only after the report comes. The state government had received the report from Kasauli.
Manjit accused Ashwini of lying on the floor of the Assembly by not disclosing findings of the report. The report clearly says that the snake venom anti-serum was found to be of sub-standard quality, especially in respect of neutralisation of cobra venom. The samples had been sent for testing following regular complaints about their quality.
It was only after the then Gopalganj district magistrate set up an inquiry that the drugs were withdrawn and further distribution stopped.
The JD(U) MLA said that in reply to his call attention motion, Ashwini Choubey accepted irregularities in the purchase of medicine in East Champaran and West Champaran. The health ministry inquiry report had indicted civil surgeons of both these districts but no action was initiated against them.
As Manjit is considered as a strong Nitish-loyalist political observers do not rule out the likely hand of the former chief minister in this latest counter-allegation against three former BJP ministers.
“But a moot question remains: as the head of the government the chief minister too is morally responsible for what had happened in the health department during the tenures of the three former health ministers,” said an analytst.
He further said that Sushil Kumar Modi is succeeding in his game-plan. He has raised such a scam in which the names of Nitish and SuMo’s three detractors within the saffron party––Chandra Mohan Rai, Nand Kishore Yadav and Ashwini Choubey––have got dragged.