Chandigarh: PGI blacklists new chemist at GMSH

Naina Mishra

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Chandigarh, November 4

The Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI) today barred the new chemist who was allotted tender for the new medical shop at the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, at Rs 17 lakh a month.

This comes as the lease of the sole chemist, who ran the shop on the GMSH premises for 29 years after doubling the area, was terminated by the Health Department.

2nd highest bidder barred too

• Lease of sole chemist, who ran shop on the GMSH premises for 29 years after doubling the area, was terminated by the Health Department recently
• GMSH had decided to open a new chemist shop for which tender was recently allotted to highest bidder, who has now been blacklisted by the PGI.
• It has now come to fore that the second highest bidder was also blacklisted by the PGI. Under the terms, blacklisted firms are barred from tender process

On September 30, the Administrative Officer Estate-I, PGI, had warned Gurpreet Kaur against barring her firm if it failed to adhere to the agreement. Today, the chemist was debarred from participating in the tender process of all commercial sites in the institute for one year.

As per the terms and conditions for the chemist shop in GMSH-16, a blacklisted or debarred firm cannot participate in the tender process. Further, the bidder is required to submit an affidavit saying the individual/firm/company is not debarred or blacklisted by any department of Union/ state government or any autonomous institute and that “no partner or shareholder, directly or indirectly connected with the applicant, has been debarred or blacklisted by any department of Union/state government/ autonomous institute.”

According to clause 25 of the bid document of the GMSH-16 chemist shop, “in case the highest bidder backs out, the offer will be made to the second bidder to take over the shop at the quoted rate of the highest bidder.” However, it has come to the fore that the second bidder had also been debarred by the PGI in 2019.

It was claimed the second highest bidder, Sanjay Dhall, was debarred by the PGI in 2019, but submitted a false affidavit, claiming ‘no debarred notices from any hospital’. The PGI had debarred the firm for not taking possession of the allotted shop as per the latter’s request. “The firm is debarred for next two years from dealing with the PGI,” the notice had said on February 7, 2019.

“Appropriate action will be taken in the matter as per the terms and conditions of the bid document,” said Yashpal Garg, UT Health Secretary.

“There are certain vested interests who do not want any new chemist shop in the GMSH-16. However, considering huge rush at the sole chemist shop and to stop the ongoing monopoly for last many decades, it has already been decided to have at least three chemist shops on the premises of GMSH-16,” he said.

“The intention behind more chemist shops is to ensure medicines/surgical equipment are made available to patients at competitive prices. Patients should have an option to choose from where they want to buy these items instead of having compulsion to purchase from the sole chemist shop only. The efforts by the vested interest to derail the process of new chemist shops will not succeed.”

The Health Department is planning to open two new chemist shops, at the GMSH-16 and one Jan Aushadhi centre.