Jaipur, Jan 2 (IANS) The Rajasthan Medical and Health Department has taken stringent action after detecting irregularities under the Rajasthan Government Health Scheme (RGHS), registering FIRs against four pharma stores and suspending two others from the scheme over the past week.

According to officials, action has been initiated against six pharma stores in total. Besides the FIRs and suspensions, 14 employees have been suspended, while letters have been issued to concerned departments seeking departmental action and recovery against 19 RGHS cardholders found to have illegally availed benefits under the scheme.

Principal Secretary, Medical and Health Department, Gayatri Rathore said the State government is following a zero-tolerance policy towards any kind of irregularity, corruption or misuse in public welfare schemes such as RGHS.

She said strict action is being ensured against all those involved and added that continuous measures are being taken to enhance transparency and effectively curb irregularities, including the registration of FIRs and adoption of technological interventions to further strengthen the scheme.

Chief Executive Officer of the Rajasthan State Health Assurance Agency, Harjilal Atal, said FIRs have been registered against Harikrishna Medical Store and Sawariya Pharma Store in Bhilwara for serious irregularities.

He said the drug licences of the two stores have been cancelled by the Additional Drug Controller. The stores allegedly fraudulently received payments under the RGHS scheme by falsely claiming the sale of medicines and injections that were never purchased, illegally obtaining payments amounting to around Rs 27 lakh.

Similarly, FIRs have also been registered against Confed Pharma Store at Ren and Jayal in Nagaur district for tampering with RGHS prescriptions and fraudulently claiming payments.

In cases involving grave irregularities, Confed Pharma Shop No. 06 in Bikaner and Shop No. 05 in Hanumangarh have been suspended from the RGHS scheme.

Additional Chief Executive Officer Nidhi Patel said that in cases involving misuse of RGHS cards by beneficiaries, letters have been issued to respective departments for departmental action and recovery against 19 beneficiaries.

She added that earlier, 54 employees had been suspended in similar cases. At present, four employees have been suspended by the Police Department, while 10 employees have been suspended by the Ayurveda Department.

–IANS

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