VB summons 9 companies

Companies from Amritsar, Jalandhar, Sangrur, Chandigarh and Delhi asked to submit purchase records

The vigilance probe into the purchase by civil surgeon’s office, from 2012 to 2015, has gained pace. The vigilance bureau (VB) has summoned the nine companies, from where the electronic equipments and medicines were purchased.

The companies from Amritsar, Jalandhar, Sangrur, Chandigarh and Delhi have been asked to submit the entire record. Vigilance sub-inspector Harjeet Singh, who is the third probing officer, said, “The civil surgeon’s office had purchased goods worth ₹70 lakh from these companies. They have been summoned in this week.”

He said, “The records of the companies are crucial as they will be matched with the records procured from the civil surgeon office.”

Senior superintendent of police (SSP vigilance) Diljinder Singh Dhillon said the probe will be completed soon. Dhillon is the fifth SSP since the probe started last year. Before him, Satinder Singh (now SSP SBS Nagar), Alka Meena (now SSP Fatehgarh Sahib), Gurmeet Singh (now DCP investigation Jalandhar) and again Satinder Singh were investigating the matter.

In another development, district accounts officer (DAO) Sanjeev Kumar, quizzed over many times regarding the purchases, has been posted back. Kumar was shifted to Fazilka and later to state headquarters Chandigarh in August, 2016. He was transferred after local civil surgeon Dr Rajiv Bhalla (now director health and family welfare) had written to the health secretary Hussan Lal. Since his transfer, the district health department has not seen any permanent DAO.

The probe was stuck for several months as the vigilance team had sought technical assistance from Faridkot based Baba Farid University Health Sciences (BFUHS) but the same was rejected by the university. The probe was initiated in February 2016 after the director general of police (DGP, vigilance) received a complaint about the alleged irregularities in the purchase of electronic equipment at the civil surgeon’s office. The VB already questioned former civil surgeon Dr RL Bassan. It had also recorded statements of nine members, who were part of the then purchasing committee.