Scam unearthed at Mohali institute

Kulwinder Sangha

Mohali, February 17 

A team from the Board of Ayurveda and Unani System of Medicine, Punjab, today  conducted a raid on the premises of “Information Technology & Management Pb,”  being run from a showroom in Phase VII here, and seized suspect documents relating to medical courses.

The documents seized included eight registers on which BAMS was written and suspect certificates. Women employees left the premises soon after the raid began. Six or seven employees worked there. It was reported to have been running for the past five or six years.

The raiding team comprised Jagjit Singh, Vice-Chairman, Dr Sanjiv Goyal, Registrar, and Rakesh Sharma, Director, of the board.

Goyal said  a government employee had brought to the notice of the higher authorities that an institute was being run in Phase VII. It was allegedly awarding degrees and diplomas  in the names of  the “Council of Alternative System of Medicine” and  the  “Council of Paramedical  Pb” to applicants. He said the institute was offering 16 different courses. 

He said a three-member team was then constituted on the directions of the government which was asked to carry out a raid and submit a report in two days.

The Registrar said there was “no alternative system of medicine for BAMS”. He alleged that the institute was not holding regular classes and people were being misled by it.

Goyal said the Department of Research and Medical Education gave clearance for running medical courses, but the employees at the institute could not provide any letter showing that permission had been taken from the authorities concerned in this regard.

He said an NOC 

from the Punjab Government had also not 

been taken for opening the institute.

Goyal said persons availing themselves of  certificates issued by such institutes could not later get themselves registered with the authorities concerned for practising and many often went to villages, where they allegedly sold drugs.  

Vice-Chairman of the board Jagjit Singh alleged that it was a scandal worth about Rs 300 crore.  He said about 10,000 certificates, each costing between Rs 2 lakh  and Rs 3 lakh, were alleged to have been sold. He said he had remained an elected member of the Central Council of Indian Medicine for 23 years and the syllabi of ayurvedic colleges was approved by this council. But this institute had  drawn up its own syllabi. 

The alleged owner of the institute, Surinder Arora, however, failed to turn up during the raid. 

A clerk, Sarabjit Singh, present on the premises,  gave his signatures on various suspect documents seized by the raiding team. 

Arora could not be contacted for comment  despite attempts.