Friday, 18 June 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
FIR filed by Haridwar health dept in the case
Taking a tough stand on the allegations of a mega scam in the testing of samples of Covid -19 during the Kumbh in Haridwar, the chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat has said that those found guilty in the Kumbh sample testing irregularities would not be spared. Responding to the questions of media persons here on Thursday, the CM said that though the issue is of the time period when he was not the CM of the state, the matter would be investigated and the guilty whosoever he might be would not be spared. Meanwhile the Haridwar district health department filed a report with the Haridwar police on the issue. In the complaint the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Haridwar Dr S K Jha has registered a case against the two private labs, Lalchandani Labs and Nalwa labs and Max Corporate Society. The CMO Dr Jha told The Pioneer that the FIR was filed on the orders of the District Magistrate (DM) of Haridwar.
A preliminary inquiry by the Haridwar administration is said to have found many irregularities in the tests conducted by private agencies during Kumbh. The probe revealed that on one ID and phone number registration of as many as 50 people were done. Many individuals who were shown as sample collectors were found to be the residents of Rajasthan and they had not even visited Haridwar during Kumbh. In one case more than 500 people who were tested were found to be residing in the same address.
The functioning of the health department and Mela Administration has also come under scanner in the whole episode. It has come to light that the agency roped in by the Mela administration, the Max Corporate service lab, was not even registered with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Experts are pointing out that the whole scam is worth several Crores of rupees. The scam first came to the light when one Vipin Mittal, a resident of Faridkot in Punjab received a message on his mobile phone that he is negative for Covid-19 for the test conducted in Haridwar Kumbh. An amused Mittal who had not visited Kumbh brought the issue to the notice of ICMR which found that the report was fake. The ICMR asked the Uttarakhand administration to look into the matter.
