A day after discrepancies were highlighted by the Anti-Corruption Bureau in the tests conducted at Delhi government’s Mohalla clinic, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday (February 4) wrote to LG VK Saxena seeking the removal of Health and Finance secretaries. In a letter to the LG, Kejriwal alleged that Deepak Kumar, who is the Health Secretary, and Ashish Verma, who holds the Finance Secretary post, have “defied” the orders of their respective ministers. He alleged that Verma stopped the payments of medicines and lab tests among other things which paralysed the health system in the city.
Kejriwal said that it is “extremely important” that the bureaucrats follow the orders of their ministers.
The letter of the Chief Minister to the Delhi LG came a day after Anti-Corruption Branch’s preliminary inquiry of the Arvind Kejriwal government revealed that 65,000 ghost patients underwent pathological tests at the Mohalla clinics through private labs during 11 months of 2023.
Kejriwal’s letter to LG
“I have asked the Health Minister for a report on the same. However, I wish to state that I have written to you earlier also to replace the Health Secretary Sh. Deepak Kumar, who is not only inefficient but openly defies the oral and written orders of his minister. How can an elected government function if the senior-most bureaucrat in that department refuses to follow orders of his Minister?” he said.
“Likewise, the Finance Secretary, Sh. Ashish Verma had in the past stopped the payments of medicines, lab tests, doctors' salaries, farishtey scheme, DAK scheme, thus paralysing the entire health system. I have requested you several times in the past, both in my personal meetings with you and in writing, to replace the Finance Secretary. He also openly defies orders of his Finance Minister. It is extremely important that the bureaucrats follow the orders of their ministers,” Kejriwal added.
Kejriwal said that the refusal of both secretaries to obey the orders of their ministers “has brought Delhi's Health system to this state”.
He urged the LG to replace both the bureaucrats “at the earliest”.
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