Patna: Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday intensified his attack on JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar for his alleged involvement in a multi-crore medicine purchase scam and wrote to state Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh seeking answers on certain questions in this regard.
Sushil, who has alleged former chief minister Kumar's involvement in the alleged scam, in the letter sought to know the duration in which a central secretariat service official Sanjay Kumar was posted in the chief minister's secretariat and the chief minister to whom he was the private secretary to.
He posted the letters addresed by him to state Chief Secretary on Twitter:
दवा घोटाले से सम्बंधित मुख्य सचिव, बिहार सरकार से पत्र के माध्यम से मांगी गई कुछ सूचनाएं.... page-1 pic.twitter.com/xG9lCOZKfC
— Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) September 18, 2014
दवा घोटाले से सम्बंधित मुख्य सचिव, बिहार सरकार से पत्र के माध्यम से मांगी गई कुछ सूचनाएं.... page-2 pic.twitter.com/eOF1F1T7pD
— Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) September 18, 2014
He also sought to know on whose order Sanjay Kumar was posted in the health department and at that time who was the minister in-charge of general administration department.
Sushil Modi, who has been demanding a CBI probe into the alleged scam, asked the chief secretary to respond as to who was the chief minister and health minister when the successful bidder for supply of medicine to hospitals in Bihar was decided by Sanjay Kumar-headed technical evaluation committee meetings held on July 19, 2013 and August 03, 2013.
Who was the chief minister and the health minister when an advocate Md Shahanwaz Ali obtained receipt on October 10, 2013 from the cabinet secretariat office with regard to his RTI queries on medicine purchase by Bihar Medical Services and Infrastructure Corporation Ltd (BMSICL), he asked.
He asked what steps were taken by the state government to prevent the alleged medicine purchase scam after Ali's letter was received by the chief minister, chief secretary, DGP and vigilance commissioner.
He also wanted to know from the chief secretary who was the chief minister and the health minister when a PIL was filed in the Patna High Court on December 24, 2013, with regard to the alleged medicine purchase scam.
He sought to know the identity of the health minister and the chief minister when the state government took cogninance of the alleged medicine purchase scam and constituted a probe by a committee headed by a health department official K K Singh on January 13 this year.
Nitish Kumar was chief minister at the time and also held the health portfolio after dismissing all BJP ministers following JD(U)'s partying way with the BJP in June, 2013.
Jitan Ram Manjhi was hand-picked by Kumar to succeed him after he tendered his resignation in the face of his party's debacle in the last Lok Sabha polls in the state.
Sushil Modi asked the chief secretary to respond as to
how many probes were going on the alleged medicine purchase scam with terms of reference and time frame.
Stating that Nitish Kumar too had written to the chief secretary on specific issues related to the alleged scam, he urged the top bureaucrat to treat his letter with the same seriousness as the former chief minister's letter.
Modi said his posers to the chief secretary has been prompted by the 'clean chit' given to the former chief minister by Manjhi and Health Minister Ramdhani Singh, who has ruled out any scam in medicine purchase.
Both Manjhi and Singh have rejected BJP's demand for recommending a CBI probe in the alleged scam, which, according to Sushil, is in excess of Rs 100 crore after initially pegging the figure at Rs 25 crore.
Kumar himself had written to Sushil last week seeking information on the alleged scam intensifying the political wrangling over it.
"Confusing statements are being passed by you regarding me in the purchase of medicines and equipment by State Health Society Bihar (SHSB) and Bihar Medical Services Infrastructure Corporation Limited (BMSICL). Accusations are being made that the irregularities in purchase happened when the charge of the health department was with me.
"I don't have any official information about this matter. Since you are raising the issue with authority everyday, I want to know how many times the minister's orders were taken for the tenders floated by SHSB and BMSICL. Also tell me when was the purchase committee or technical committee were constituted and what was the role of Health Minister in their work and decisions," Kumar wrote.
The senior JD(U) leader had also written to Anjani Kumar Singh for official information on the scam that is raging in the state for the last two months.
With PTI Inputs
