Haryana orders CAG audit into purchase of medicines in state

MINISTER SAYS THERE IS MISMATCH IN PRICE AS THE GOVT BOUGHT QUALITY MEDICINES

CHANDIGARH: A day after Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MP from Hisar, Dushyant Chautala, alleged a ₹300-crore scam in the purchase of medicines in five districts of the state, Haryana health minister Anil Vij has ordered the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to conduct a special audit.

“I have ordered a special audit into purchase of medicines in all 22 districts and not only five districts — Rewari, Hisar, Fatehabad, Rohtak and Jind — as Dushyant had alleged,” Vij said, adding that the charges were baseless.

On Sunday, Dushyant had alleged that the state health department had purchased medicines and other items on highly inflated rates in five districts and through some bogus companies. He had quoted information collected under the RTI Act, claiming that the scam was of over Rs 300 crore.

On Monday, Vij told reporters that he had examined the information that Dushyant had quoted from and found no irregularity. “How could there be a ₹300 crore scam, when drugs and items worth only about ₹40 crore were bought in three years by the health department and the NHM against the allocation of about Rs 87 crore,” he said.

On the allegation that face masks were bought at manytime the market rates, “The

department had bought triplelayer quality masks and not the ordinary quality.

The opposition has apparently wrongly compared prices of two types of masks.” On sanitisers being purchased at inflated price, Vij held that the INLD had again compared the prices of two different types of sanitisers.

“The department had purchased alcohol-based sanitise that is expensive,” he said, putting forward the same ‘quality’ justification for cotton rolls. He added he had instructed officials of the drug administration department to check if any of the companies that the drugs were purchased from were bogus. “Stern action will be taken if there is irregularity,” he added.