Shubhra Singh, additional chief secretary, medical and health is in no mood to give reprieve to staff and doctors responsible for issuing fake NoCs mandatory for kidney transplant in Jaipur.
Shubhra Singh, being a kidney donor to her husband, has been sensitive to this issue ever since it came up. Her husband Samir Singh Chandel, also an IAS officer of 1989-batch of Rajasthan cadre, has taken voluntary retirement.
Shubhra Singh intimated anti corruption bureau (ACB) and asked the agency to conduct an enquiry into issuing of fake NoC of the state level committee which had SMS Medical College principal Dr. Rajiv Bagarhatta as the chairman and five other doctors including SMS hospital superintendent Achal Sharma as members.
The lid was off when ACB nabbed Gaurav Singh, an assistant administrative officer, for issuing fake NoC for a transplant to be taken place at EHCC Hospital. Singh had been issuing this NoC for last three years with forged signatures of all committee members. The committee has not held any meeting for last three years and sources say that more than 882 kidney transplants took place in private hospitals of Jaipur over one year in four government and 11 private hospitals. Out of these, in 269 transplants donors and recipients were not relatives while 171 transplants were of foreign citizens.
The arrest of Gaurav Singh could not establish direct link of corruption between committee members and private hospitals but it surely pointed fingers at the working of committee members.
Unhappy with the working and slackness of committee members, the government made committee chairman Dr. Rajiv Bagarhatta, SMS superintendent Dr. Achal Sharma and Rajasthan university of health sciences vice chancellor Dr. Sudhir Bhandari accountable for the issuance of fake NoCs right under their nose. Before Bagarhatta, Bhandari was chairman of the committee when he was the principal of SMS medical college.
The government sought resignation from these three doctors and set up a three-member committee to further investigate the matter. The three-member committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Anil Sharma, has submitted its report.
Prompt action in kidney transplant racket
Shubhra Singh, immediately swung into action and suspended Dr Rajendra Bagdi, who is additional superintendent of SMS hospital. Dr. Bagdi has been found guilty of not convening meeting despite knowing about the pending NoC applications. The state government also sent 16CCA notices to Dr. Achal Sharma, Dr. Bagathatta and Dr. Bagdi seeking explanation about the negligence and misconduct in duty.
More skeletons are likely to come out of the closet as the Special Investigation Team (SIT) is investigating into the matter.
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