MLA Joshi alleges Rs 25 cr health insurance scam

Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, July 7

Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi has demanded a CBI probe into the alleged Rs 25 crore scam committed under the Chief Minister Health Insurance Scheme.

Joshi, while addressing mediapersons here today, said the Congress-led state government had launched the scheme to provide financial help of Rs 50,000 to the poor. However, the government employees, pensioners and individual income tax payers have been excluded from the scheme.

Joshi, showing an alleged fraudulent health insurance card to mediapersons, said the name of Uttarakhand Purv Sainik Kalyan Nigam Limited (UPNL) Managing Director figured in the list of beneficiaries in violation of the guidelines.

He said the scam could be bigger than Rs 25 crore as it was not limited to one individual but spread across the state. The Congress government has tried to benefit party workers through the scheme and left out the actual beneficiaries. He also alleged that the government had failed on disaster management front and had not been able to restart the repair and restoration work in the Bandal Valley, a few kilometers from Dehradun Valley, affected by the natural calamity of 2013 and 2014 despite the submission of projects worth Rs 11 crore to the government.

He said the condition of disaster affected remote areas of the state was much worse than presented by the state government. Disaster teams had not been constituted in the district and SDRF personnel were facing immense problems in performing duties in the absence of adequate equipment.

Joshi charged the state government with indifference in installing doppler radars proposed in Nainital, Mussoorie and Uttarkashi to assist in forecasting incidents of cloudburst in the region.

Joshi demanded a CBI probe into the issue and also warned, if no action was initiated, he would raise the matter in the Assembly during the monsoon session.

The name of Uttarakhand Purv Sainik Kalyan Nigam Limited (UPNL) Managing Director figured in the list of beneficiaries in violation of the guidelines