It was about two years back that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had unearthed a huge consignment of spurious drugs from hospitals in Western Uttar Pradesh. The CBI had taken congnisance of the report that spurious medicines were being supplied to district hospitals in Meerut, Bulandshahar, Ghaziabad and other adjoining districts under the centrally-sponsored National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) programme.

Subsequent investigation by the CBI through laboratories proved beyond doubt that the medicines were not only fake but also harmful to health. These medicines were distributed to patients, particularly coming from the economically weaker sections, for a long time. For the Mayawati government, which claims to represent dalits and depressed class, the attempt to play with public health should have been an eye-opener. But nothing of this sort happened.

For the past two years, the state government has denied permission to the CBI to investigate the case and prosecute the guilty. The government had willfully ignored the CBI’s request for approval which is mandatory for the agency to probe against the state government officers. The probe met a dead end as the CBI could not proceed further in the case which has a direct bearing on the defalcation of a large amount of Rs 3,000 crore allocated to the state under the NRHM. Apparently, the CBI could conduct initial probe only due to the fact that the NRHM is a centrally-sponsored programme.

Those aware of this large-scale loot of central funds would testify that the murder of Dr YS Sachan in Lucknow district jail was only a sequel to the crime of gargantuan proportion perpetrated by a nexus of the mafia from East UP, top politicians and bureaucrats in the state. Official sources admit that more than 80 percent of Rs 3,000 crore has been siphoned off to the kitty of this crime syndicate which practically rules the state.

Explaining the organised manner in which this loot is conducted, a senior UP official said , “It can be described as scientific loot which covers up trails.” Officials admit that recently the health department was bifurcated into two departments in order to facilitate the loot. In each districts, two CMOs have been posted. The most lucrative posting belonged to those who are in-charge of the NRHM programme with huge funds at their disposal.

The programme allows so much discretion to the CMO that in Lucknow alone it could be easily shown that the CMO had hired 150-odd vehicles to spread awareness about health issues among rural population and weaker sections. Similarly, a huge fund could easily be shown to have dried up in distribution of medicines. In some cases, registers were maintained with fake entries to disburse salaries, an official pointed out. This story of “scientific loot” is applied to all districts in the state, they say.

But why is there intriguing silence from the centre? The answer lies in political compulsions. The UPA government has cautiously avoided running against Mayawati’s wishes as her party’s support is often crucial at critical junctures. On the Indo-US nuclear deal, prime minister Manmohan Singh banked on the BSP. More recently, the Congress has been keen to keep Mayawati in good humour after its strained relations with the DMK. Though the union government is totally aware of the large-scale bungling in Uttar Pradesh of centrally-sponsored schemes, it feigns ignorance for future political prospects. In reality, it would be wrong to assume that the loot of NRHM had caused lives of only three CMOs – YS Sachan, BP Singh and Vinod Arya. They were only collateral damage to the monumental corruption which has been playing havoc with the lives of millions in the country’s most populous state.