Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Aug 22: A major scam has surfaced in the office of Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Jammu where a well knit nexus of officers and officials has looted the State exchequer of lakhs by illegally withdrawing lakhs of rupees as 2 ½ days salary that too without discharging duties on Sundays and other gazetted holidays.
As per an RTI reply, the copy of which is in possession of Excelsior, four officials including Head Pharmacist Rakesh Kumar Khajuria (working in Stores), Senior Pharmacist Bahadur Singh (working in Disability and Handicapped Section), Junior Pharmacist Shaffkat Hussain (working in Birth and Death Section) and Junior Health Inspector Pawan Singh (working in Medical Fitness Section) are illegally withdrawing 2 ½ days salary since long.
According to the RTI reply dated 03-04-2017, Junior Pharmacist Shafkat Hussain (working in Birth and Death section) has withdrawn an amount of Rs 1.6 lakh from October 2009 to January 2017 while Junior Health Inspector (JHI) Pawan Singh (working in Medical Fitness Section) withdrew a sum of Rs 0.725 lakh from September 2012 to January 2017 as their 2 ½ days salaries whereas none of them worked on gazetted holidays during these periods, which is evident from the photocopies of attendant register of these officials, available with Excelsior.
However, earlier in another RTI reply dated 02-12-2016, the CMO Jammu had revealed that Junior Pharmacist Shafkat Hussain and JHI Pawan Singh were withdrawing 2 ½ days salary from January 2015 to November 2016, which is completely in contradiction with 2nd RTI reply.
The RTI activist maintained that the copies of attendance register of these officials clearly show that both these officials did not attend duties on Sunday and other gazetted holidays but still they managed to get 2 ½ days salary, which clearly indicates that there was a well knit nexus in the CMO office, which facilitated wrong doing of these officials.
“Moreover, pharmacist is a technical job but instead of utilizing the services of these officials in health institutions, they have been posted in CMO office, where they are working as clerks”, the RTI activist said and alleged that these officials are so influential that they have been working in the CMO office for last over one decade.
Meanwhile, another RTI activist alleged that on May 6, 2017 she had filed an RTI in CMO office Jammu seeking information regarding name, designation and place of posting of all those employees who were drawing 2 ½ days salary but after lapse of over three months and even two reminders issued by Deputy Director, Health Services, Jammu, the CMO office did not bother to provide information sought by her.
When contacted, CMO Jammu, Dr Robinder Khajuria, said that the services of these officials who were withdrawing 2 ½ days salary, were being utilized to provide medical facilities during religious/social functions, emergency situations in Jammu city and border area during sudden firing from Pakistan side.
When asked why he did not provide month wise duty roaster of these officials to the RTI activist, who had sought the same, he gave a strange reply that these officials were deputed on verbal instructions and CMO office has not maintained any regular roaster regarding this.
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