Kolkata, State Bureau. The Calcutta High Court has sought an affidavit from the state which has discrepancies in the accounts and information of the Swasthya Sathi Scheme. By 14 May, the Secretary of State for Home, Health and Finance will have to give detailed information in the form of an affidavit to the Division Bench of Chief Justice Thottil Bhaskaran Nair Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee. The plaintiff has to give a counter affidavit by 21 May. The next hearing of the case is in the first week of June.
Ajay Kumar Prasad and Ajay Manna, two social workers, filed a PIL alleging a scam of around 200 crores, exposing discrepancies between the accounts and information of the Swasthya Sathi Yojana. At the hearing of the case on Friday, Ajit Kumar Mishra and Smerjit Roy Choudhary on behalf of the plaintiff petitioned the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) to take stock of the financial scam. Apart from this, the number of Swasthya Saathi cards, which the state government has placed on the official website of Swasthya Saathi Yojana, has not been reached to the people.
The litigants also alleged that many dying patients were being discharged from the hospital due to the negligence of the state. Opposing this, Advocate General Kishore Dutt questioned the admissibility of the case on behalf of the state. He said that only the petition has been filed for publicity in newspapers. They have nothing to do with the interest of the people.
However, the plaintiff’s lawyers claim that all the documents presented in the case are based on information from the state website. There is a big difference between the number of Swasthya Sathi cards issued in the state and the number of cards issued. According to the survey, 90 out of every 100 people did not receive the card. On the other hand, there are discrepancies in the number of patients who are said to have benefited from it. There are discrepancies in the cost estimates published by the state government on the state website. According to the information available from the government website, there is a discrepancy of about Rs 188.90 crore.
