NRHM scam: In UP villages, cataract ops were all 'maya'

New Delhi: Around 22 km from Lucknow, on the road to Varanasi, is a nondescript village called Beli that lies in Goasaiganj block. As per official records, it is a happy village, with many of the elders getting cataracts removed through surgeries funded by the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). The problem is most of the patients do not exist except on official records. The scandal involving the misuse of funds from the NRHM is perhaps unique for the scale of corruption in which almost none of the funds reached the intended recipients. Firstpost took the village of Beli as a case study. According to Uttar Pradesh government records, there are no villagers with cataract in Beli. [caption id=“attachment_229214” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The scandal involving the misuse of funds from the NRHM is perhaps unique for the scale of corruption in which almost none of the funds reached the intended recipients. Firstpost”]  [/caption] The records also show that a non-government organisation (NGO) - Gomti Bahu Udashaya (multi-purpose) Sansthan –claimed money for conducting cataract operations from 8-22 December 2009 in Beli and 12 other villages. It charged the government nearly Rs 1,000 for each cataract operation. But a Firstpost team that visited five villages did not find a single person named in the list of beneficiaries – dead or alive. The NGO’s list had 406 names from 13 villages of this Lucknow district. Firstpost visited Malauli, Sathwara, Beli, Koriani and Bhikoli to try and find even one person mentioned in the list who was cured of cataract. The list, however, turned out to be fictitious. It was created randomly and fake bills were submitted to draw Rs 3.45 lakh. Firstpost met Ram Asre Yadav, 80, who was on a village street carrying a bag of vegetables when we first spotted him. He is educated and had retired from the railways. He can read with only one eye. Firstpost showed him the names of people listed by the NGO: Suraj Bali, son of Lalla, Jyoti, wife of Udaipratap, Kanti, wife of Manohar, and others. “Do you know any of them?” we asked Yadav, given they were listed as residents of Beli and have had cataracts removed as per government’s records. He didn’t know any of them. Yadav took this reporter to a shop to discuss the issue with other villagers. They were also shown the list, but they too didn’t know anyone. “Some police officers had visited a few days ago asking us about the same names. They don’t exist in our village,” Shivram, husband of the village pradhan, said. Yadav says he waited for a long time for an eye check-up in 2009 since he had cataracts in both eyes. He gets Rs 6,000 per month as pension and private hospitals were seeking high charges for an operation. In the end, he went to a private hospital, Swami Vivekanand hospital. He says he lost his left eye soon after the operation. He took off his glasses and closed his right eye to demonstrate that he was blind without his right eye. Yadav is disillusioned with politicians. He says he voted this time too, but life hasn’t changed much for him in many years. “We have only seen ‘change’ in power, but our lives are a big constant,” he says. Yadav paraded several other elders of the village– Sripal, son of Ramdayal, Sumitra, wife of Sripal and Swami Dayal, son of Sheetla Bakas- all of whom are in their eighties and need urgent eye check-ups. The NGO that claimed to have conducted cataract operations in Beli had listed the names of 30 persons who had been cured of cataract. According to the CBI, one Dr Vijay Tripathi runs the Gomti Bahu Udashaya (multi-purpose) Sansthan, which operates in Lucknow district. The CBI officers who are investigating the NRHM scam confirmed that crores of rupees were withdrawn from NRHM funds in the name of conducting cataract operations and 10 other health projects. Of the Rs 9,000-crore plus spent on NRHM schemes in Uttar Pradesh, over Rs 6,000 crore went to these projects, including the cataract operations. How much of these funds actually went to treating genuine patients is anybody’s guess. But as the Beli experience shows, a lot of the funds went into the wrong hands. “We have conducted investigations only in these 13 villages in one district. There are 72 districts in UP and investigations are still under way in these districts. We have begun to get the macro picture in the cataract scandal and it is quite serious,’’ said a senior CBI official. Sandeep Pandey, a Magsaysay award winner who runs an NGO, Asha for Education, says: “I have never heard of these NGOs in so many years.” Investigations so far indicate that some NGOs sprung up just when the money was being allocated under NRHM. Many of these NGOs were defunct and were activated with NRHM money. Some of them reportedly had relatives and spouses of senior bureaucrats and politicians on their rolls. The picture will be clear in a couple of months after the CBI completes its investigations. The NRHM scam has already claimed two lives, as attempts are being made by powerful politicians to cover up their roles. As _Firstpost_ reported on Tuesday , the CBI now believes it has stumbled on an angle that brings Chief Minister Mayawati into the picture. Mayawati’s office came into the picture when the Uttar Pradesh government decided to separate the Medical Health function of the health ministry from Family Welfare despite the centre’s categorical instructions that the two should not be bifurcated. The Chief Minister’s office gave its permission to use NRHM money for family welfare, and overnight large sums of money started going into family welfare schemes. The CBI suspects that the creation of the new Chief Medical Officer posts for doing family welfare programmes was intended to enable the diversion of funds under NRHM. Till date, the Central Government has given the Uttar Pradesh government Rs 9,472.25 crore under the NRHM programme.