In what is the second such committee appointed within a span of eight days, the public health department on Tuesday appointed a four-member committee to conduct a probe into the financial transactions at the Regional Mental Hospital (RMH) in Yerawada, officials said. The four-member committee was appointed by Dr Radhakishan Pawar, deputy director of health services, to investigate the financial transactions of the Centre of Excellence Programme started under the District Mental Health Programme at the hospital.
As per the orders issued, the committee will be helmed by Ganesh Jagtap, circle programme manager, National Health Mission (NHM) while the other three members include Mahesh Ruptakke, Smarnika Patil and Vijay Gholap from NHM. The committee will inspect the financial records for the years 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25. The medical superintendent of the RMH has been directed to cooperate with the team during the inspection, officials said.
Dr Shrinivas Kolod, acting medical superintendent of the RMH, said that the Centre of Excellence was started three years ago and received funds from the NHM. “The RMH received funds of ₹50 lakh between February and March 2024. All decisions and transactions regarding the funds received, allocations and payments are carried out exclusively by the medical superintendent of the hospital. Due to this, we are unaware of other funds being received and allocation for the previous year. However, we are now checking all the past and current years’ records,” Dr Kolod said.
The public health department has already started an inspection of all four mental hospitals in the state as per directions from the public health minister, Prakash Abitkar. Following complaints received regarding alleged corruption at the RMH, the health department last week appointed a committee to probe the alleged corruption at the hospital. However, during the first inspection itself, the medical superintendent Dr Sunil Patil went on a month-long leave.
Hindustan Times had published a news report earlier on January 13 titled, ‘Despite spending ₹73.04 lakh, only one solar water heater functional at RMH’ regarding the discrepancies found at the hospital while providing healthcare services to the inmates. To provide hot water for domestic use to patients, the state government granted funds of ₹73.04 lakh to the RMH. The hospital made a bill payment of ₹73.04 lakh to the contractor in two instalments (May and November 2024). However, despite all bills being paid, only one solar water heater in section 3 of the men’s ward is functional forcing inmates to use cold water for baths, said officials.
The RMH is a Regional Institute of Psychiatric Science and Allied Services (RIPAS) and for the past three years, has been running a diploma course in psychiatric nursing under its Centre of Excellence programme. Under the same programme, courses like Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in MSW and MPhil in Clinical Psychology among others have been proposed.
A senior officer from the RMH on condition of anonymity said that the funds are received from the NHM for these courses and are supposed to be used for furniture, library, computers, stationery, IEC material, and teaching equipment among others. “The committee will probe if the funds received were allocated as per protocol and for the reason they were allotted. It will also probe if there is any misappropriation of funds,” said the official.
Dr Pawar said, “The committee has been appointed by us to inspect the financial transactions and records. This is a routine practice by us and no complaints were received regarding any alleged misappropriation of funds. However, action is taken if any misappropriation of funds is found in the records,” he said. Hindustan Times