While it is not known what transpired in the conversation between the prime minister and the then health minister Harsh Vardhan, the RTI replies reveal a level of inertia in governance.
New Delhi: At the peak of the controversy surrounding whistleblower Indian Forest Service officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi exposing major corruption in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a telephonic call to the then health minister Harsh Vardhan to discuss the issue, an RTI has revealed. The hospital administration and the Union health ministry had been pushing for Chaturvedi’s removal from the post of chief vigilance officer (CVO) at the premier medical institution at the time.
But while Chaturvedi was later divested of the charges, no action was taken against those who were indicted by him in his investigation as CVO.
PM made call to health minister
Queries filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act have revealed that Prime Minister Modi made a call to Harsh Vardhan on August 23, 2014, to discuss the issue of removing Chaturvedi from the post of the CVO at AIIMS.
“The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India had a telephonic discussion with the Hon’ble Union minister of health and family welfare regarding relieving the additional charge of CVO, AIIMS, New Delhi from Sh. Sanjiv Chaturvedi, DS, AIIMS, New Delhi. A detailed note in this regard is submitted for perusal of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India,” a letter sent by the then Union health secretary Lov Verma to principal secretary to the prime minister, Nripendra Mishra, revealed.
Subsequently, Chaturvedi had sent an exhaustive note to Modi in September 2014, disclosing details of all the cases of corruption exposed and acted upon by him in his tenure as CVO from July 2012 to August 2014. He had enclosed all the letters written by the then Rajya Sabha MP JP Nadda which demanded his removal from AIIMS and a halt to all the corruption cases investigated by him.
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