No action against health officials accused of graft

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 12

Four months after health officials were accused of accepting monthly bribe to allow the sale of spurious and adulterated paneer and other milk products in Punjab and Haryana, the department is yet to initiate action against any of them.

Health Minister Brahm Mohindra too claims that the department has not forwarded the matter to him.

In August, a police team had raided a factory. The owner was arrested and the police seized 7,000 litres of adulterated milk, 323 bags of skimmed milk powder, 250 litres of chemicals used in making adulterated milk, 20 quintals of paneer and 12 quintals of ghee, besides refined oil, soda, acid and detergent powder.

Police investigation had revealed that the officials were “hand in glove” with the owner and had been getting their samples cleared from government lab at Kharar. The officials had allegedly been taking a bribe of Rs5,000 per month per dealer and Rs10,000 to get clearance for the samples.

“We had sent the complaint to the Health Department informing them about the nexus and how the officials were accepting bribe money through a middleman, Sukhwinder Singh,” said SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu.

Mohindra said: “The health officials have not put up the file before me. I am unaware of the whole matter. The Director, Mission Tandarust, is responsible for such acts of officers. I will look into the delay. Erring officials will face the music.”

Kahan Singh Pannu, Director, Mission Tandarust, claimed that they had already made the system of sample testing foolproof with online monitoring. “We have spent Rs 15 crore on revamping the entire process. I cannot comment on the past, but there is no scope for any fixing of samples now,” he said.