Transfers of ACB & FDA officials raise eyebrows

  • | Monday | 1st May, 2017

Darade was probing into the irrigation scam involving officials of the water resources department and leading politicians in the Vidarbha region. While the ACB is still investigating the case, it appears that the probe against the politicians has reached a dead end. Not a single government hospital has an independent dialysis unit or a modern laboratory for treatment of heart ailments. Of course, securing the award was not an easy task, given the fact that district collectors of 599 districts were in the race. Besides setting up a huge pendal to accommodate one lakh patients, Mahajan took over all the government and private hospitals in the north Maharashtra region for treatment and post-surgical care.

Questions are being raised over the manner in which chief minister Devendra Fadnavis recently shifted Nagpur anti-corruption bureau (ACB) superintendent Sanjay Darade and food and drug administration joint commissioner (vigilance) Harish Baijal. Darade had completed just a year in Nagpur and was transferred to Nashik as superintendent of police, while Baijal had completed 16 months and he will now head the Solapur unit of the State Reserve Police Force. Darade was probing into the irrigation scam involving officials of the water resources department and leading politicians in the Vidarbha region. After Fadnavis granted permission to the water resources department to conduct an open inquiry on December 12, 2014, the ACB on February 24, 2016 registered two independent criminal complaints against a section of contractors and officials. While the ACB is still investigating the case, it appears that the probe against the politicians has reached a dead end. In the Konkan region, where the ACB has registered two criminal cases, while contractors were arrested, no case has been registered against NCP leaders Ajit Pawar and Sunil Tatkare.After Baijal took over the reins of the FDA, he exposed the biggest ever drug scam and also found that the department's vigilance branch was in a mess. However, all his powers were slowly withdrawn to ensure that he is not able to discharge his duties. Baijal knocked at the doors of the higher authorities, but there was no response. Instead of setting the FDA in order, the government quietly shunted him out.Treating it right?For medical education minister Girish Mahajan, it was a huge achievement when more than three lakh patients were examined by a contingent 4,000 doctors led by J J Hospital dean T P Lahane in the medical camp in tribal Nandurbar district in north Maharashtra. Ever since Mahajan took the charge of the medical education department, following the success of the first camp organised in his home town in Jamner tehsil in Jalgaon district, he felt that organising medical camps was the novel scheme to reach out to poor people. In Nandurbar, Mahajan set up huge infrastructure not only for treatment of the patients, but also for performing major procedures and surgical intervention. Besides setting up a huge pendal to accommodate one lakh patients, Mahajan took over all the government and private hospitals in the north Maharashtra region for treatment and post-surgical care. Senior bureaucrats felt that organising medical camps is a welcome idea, but it was high time that Mahajan takes a lead in setting up basic infrastructure in all the hospitals and a medical college in each district across the state. Not a single government hospital has an independent dialysis unit or a modern laboratory for treatment of heart ailments. Nandurbar is represented by Vijay Kumar Gavit, a former professor of medicine since 1995, but he too appears to have failed to set up basic infrastructure in his own hometown despite being a cabinet member for two decades.A job well doneFor Jalna collector Shivajirao Jondhale, it was a pleasant surprise when he received the award for effective implementation of the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme at the hands of PM Narendra Modi on the civil services day. Jalna is among the most drought-prone district in the Marathwada region. For Jondhale it was a difficult task to convince the farmers to join the PM's crop insurance scheme, since it involved payment of premium. Soon after he took charge of the district in May 2015, he initiated dialogue with all the elected representatives, followed by interaction with heads of financial institutions and farmers. An awareness camp was launched in the entire district. Ultimately, 12.82 lakh farmers agreed to join the insurance scheme, which envisages payment of compensation for crop damage in post harvesting, cutting and harvesting, storm, unseasonal rains, floods and hail storm. Of course, securing the award was not an easy task, given the fact that district collectors of 599 districts were in the race. There were series of presentation, final being before the NITI Aayog and union cabinet secretary, field visit of the high ranking officials from New Delhi for physical verification. Says Jondhale, it was a different kind of experience.

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