Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (File)
ON MARCH 13, 2015, the Maharashtra government set up a Medical Assistance Cell (MAC) to facilitate the disbursal of money to cover medical expenses of the poor under the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Within a year, an official linked to the CMRF raised at least two red flags, warning of “inconsistencies” in the way funds were being sanctioned.
Finally, on September 7, 2017, CM Devendra Fadnavis ordered the setting up of a high-level monitoring committee, under Principal Secretary (Public Health) Dr Pradeep Vyas, to review claims under CMRF. The same day, the public health department asked state-run hospitals to exercise “utmost caution” while certifying medical records in such cases.
Over the last two days, The Indian Express analysed RTI records to report how the CMRF, a charity fund, was getting derailed at the implementation stage, with stolen identities, fake records, proxy applicants, inflated medical estimates and dubious income certificates used to claim benefits. Reacting to these findings, Fadnavis promised strict action against those fraudulently claiming benefits.
The Indian Express has also learnt that on December 30, 2015, the then Assistant Director (Fund and Audit) of CMRF, Vaishali Patil, wrote to the CMO highlighting discrepancies in disbursal of funds. She followed up with an email on February 16, 2016, the day she was moved out of the CMRF. In her communication, Patil cautioned that “it shall be difficult for the Chief Minister’s secretariat and the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund trust to defend actions, if the inconsistencies were to be ever become public…”
Read | Norms will be tightened to check misuse of CMRF: CMO
An applicant exits the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund cell in Mantralaya, Mumbai. (Express Photo/Ganesh Shirsekar )
Some of the key points raised include:
* Approvals were granted in some cases without mandatory clearance from a committee comprising doctors, health experts and CMO officials. For instance, on December 19, 2015, the MAC approached the Chief Minister directly for approval in 20 applications as a “special case” without placing them before the committee.
* Referring to a report from the Solapur District Collector, dated February 3, 2016, which noted that some beneficiaries had submitted fudged records, Patil warned that a “detailed scrutiny would bring out more bogus cases”.
* In many cases, money was disbursed multiple times to the same patient in violation of norms.
Read | Dead get cash, bills are fudged: Maharashtra financial assistance scheme for poor is ailing
* Given the “rate at which the CMRF payments were being made for medical assistance”, the fund, which is also used for relief during natural calamities, would get exhausted within two years. RTI records show the CMO disbursed over Rs 237 crore for medical assistance from the CMRF in 23,267 cases between November 2014 and November 2017. The records show the CMRF’s main savings bank account had a balance of about Rs 185 crore on November 27, 2017, with another Rs 20 crore in three other accounts linked to the fund for farmer relief and drought mitigation.
Contacted by The Indian Express, Patil, now attached to the Thane District Collector’s office, declined comment.
Speaking to The Indian Express Monday, Omprakash Shete, Officer on Special Duty in charge of MAC, had said: “Our priority has been to save the lives of poor people. A committee of doctors evaluates applications before they are sanctioned. We are now in the process of putting in place more checks and safeguards.”
RTI records show that despite the red flags, funds continued to be disbursed without adequate verification.
For instance, on October 10, 2017, the CMO sanctioned Rs 3 lakh to be deposited in the account of Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune to cover a bone marrow transplant for 11-year-old Manish Sadaphal, the son of a farmer from Ahmednagar. Manish had died four days after undergoing the procedure on August 25, 2017, doctors confirmed. Documents show that on October 24, 2017, his case was considered again for CMRF assistance, and another Rs 1 lakh released to the hospital. The first application was submitted on July 17, 2017, and the second on August 4, 2017.
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Documents show that in violation of norms, the application included two estimates from the hospital issued on different dates, with both certified by the government civic surgeon at the Ahmednagar General Hospital. “The certificate of original estimate is normally issued only once. Our records show that this was the case for Sadaphal, with an certificate issued on July 31, 2017. If it has been issued twice, it would be due to some mistake,” said Dr Sameer Melinkeri, who performed the procedure on Manish.
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