YEH MERA INDIA

Dead man wakes up before post-mortem

Mumbai: The Sion hospital authorities have brushed aside all allegations of negligence and have put the entire blame on the police in the case of a 45-year-old man who woke up minutes before post-mortem at the hospital on Sunday.

In fact, the hospital dean stated they found out the doctors were asked by the police to hurry up as they were busy with security preparations for the PM’s visit to the city. The chaotic situation and pressure from the police led to the doctor making the mistake.

Dr Suleiman Merchant, dean of the hospital, said: “After investigation, we got to know that the doctors were under great pressure from the police and therefore the doctor committed a mistake owing to huge confusion. Also, the police didn’t even allow the doctor to keep the patient in the casualty section. The available doctor was a junior owing to non-availability of senior medical officer.”

The patient was found by the Sion police near the ST bus stop and was rushed to Sion Hospital for treatment. Following this, the patient was brought to the casualty department and checked by Dr Rohit Rohekar, who declared him dead after checking him once and made a death entry in the diary.

When the patient was brought to the morgue, the officers at the morgue noticed that the stomach of the patient was moving, indicating he was breathing. Following this, the police officers were informed who immediately admitted him for treatment. The goof-up raises huge questions about the safety of patients and efficiency of the hospital.

CAG exposes dirtier side

The Indian pharma industry has been resorting to a slew of dodgy tax avoidance practices that include claiming exemptions for illegal freebies given to doctors and research work that was not taking place among other tricks, reveals a new report of India’s audit watchdog, the CAG. The report also takes to task the income tax department for allowing these practices causing losses worth crores of rupees of the exchequer.

Taking an innovative approach to dig out the dirt on the flourishing pharma sector, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) asked the income tax department to show tax assessments of the whole pharma sector in India. The tax office had no database of pharma manufacturers and was able to produce only 2,868 assessment records. These were put under the scanner by the CAG and it found 246 cases involving tax deficiency of over Rs 1,348 cr.

The most startling of the dirty tricks played was that of claiming tax exemption for giving gifts to doctors to lure them into prescribing certain drugs or treatments. The Medical Council of India expressly prohibits this and the statutory Central Board of Direct Taxation has also clarified in 2012 that such expenses are not allowable for exemptions. Yet, the CAG found that in 21 cases spread over five states this was allowed by assessing officers resulting in a tax loss of Rs 45.43 crore. Giving examples, the CAG report, says that a company in Gujarat spent Rs 7.48 crore on “doctors’ travelling expenses along with spouse, gift articles distributed, etc.” and was given exemption resulting in tax loss of Rs 2.54 crore. In another case, a pharma company from Mumbai spent Rs 2.91 crore on what they candidly called ‘Heart Touching Celebration, sponsorship of doctors and corporate/ brand recall items’ and got an exemption of Rs 11.91 crore. The biggest deficiency caught by the CAG related to claims of exemptions for R&D that were not valid.

‘Govt must tell 

people what the 

law says’:CIC

New Delhi: It is common sense but it has taken the Central Information Commission (CIC) to drive home the point that the government cannot expect people to obey the law if it does not tell them what the law says in the first place.

The law ministry has been told to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation for the difficulties a law school student had face in 2012 and come up with a plan within the next one month to update all laws on its website.

The money will go to the library of the National Law School University in Bengaluru where Vansh Sharada Gupta was a student when he complained under the information law in 2012.

Gupta had pointed out how he could not access the updated version of Indian Christian Marriage Act on the law ministry’s website. Since e-mails to the officials concerned bounced, he filed an RTI application to ascertain if there was any other e-mail address. When there was no response, he complained. The CIC not only told the law ministry to ensure e-mails did not bounce off its IDs, but also fix the system of incorporating amendments.

Gupta’s troubles owe their origin to the absence any system within the government to update a law once Parliament amends it. This means that if Gupta wants to read the code of civil procedure, he will have to go through each of the 100-plus amendments made to the original 1908 version to figure out what the law really says. Or buy an updated copy from private publishers at an exorbitant price.

“It is the minimum responsibility of the State to provide updated information about amendments,” information commissioner M Sridhar Acharyalu ruled.

Under the RTI act too, he said it was the duty of the law ministry’s legislative department to “provide information about access to every updated enactment. It is not just an recommended obligation under… RTI Act, but a constitutional mandate, a legal necessity, and an essential requirement for peace.

It is not possible to imagine ‘enactment’ becoming secret because of this ambiguity and nonlegibility,” the commission observed. 

7232 cases but FIR only 7:

 ACB Mumbai

Mumbai: Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau’s Mumbai unit initiated probe merely into 9% of complaints that it received during the last 45 months, according to an RTI reply.

ACB’s Mumbai region received 7,232 complaints from January 2012 to September 2015 mainly of disproportionate assets and graft charges against government servants. But it ordered “open and discrete” inquiries in only 671 complaints.

In 322 cases, the anti-corruption watchdog closed the probes without taking any action, RTI activist Jeetendra Ghadge said quoting the reply received from Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police–ACB Rajan Bhogle. Of the remaining 349 cases, FIRs were filed only in seven cases while inquiries were pending in 299 cases, the reply mentioned.

Ghadge said that only seven out of 7,232 cases meager 0.096% complaints were converted into FIRs.

“Most certainly, during the course of trial, the accused would go scot-free. This implies that either everyone is filing false complaints or there is absolutely no corruption in Mumbai,” he claimed.

Referring to Bombay High Court’s directives, he said the ACB is supposed to investigate every complaint it receives.

Refuting Ghatge’s charges, Bhogle told, “When so ever we get any complaint, we go through it thoroughly. When a case does not pertain to graft or corruption, we forward it to the authorities concerned to take corrective measures”.

Cess in the name of labour does not reach them

Bhayandar: Be it rain, cold or sweltering summer, 52-year-old Meera Chinappa slogs for 12 hours every day at a construction site in Kashimira to earn Rs 275 daily to support her family. She has been working for building contractors in and around the region for more than 24 years, but has never heard of any welfare scheme for her kids’ education, healthcare benefits or even low budget homes.

She is one of the many labourers who continue to be deprived of their right to various provisions under the Building And Other Construction Workers (Regulations Of Employment And Conditions Of Service) Act, 1996 and the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008.

As per law, it is mandatory for builders of projects in Maharashtra to pay 1% of the construction cost to the state as Labour Welfare Cess. The respective civic body collects the cess and deposits the amount in the treasury of the State’s labour department, which is supposed to spend it on the welfare of construction workers under the aegis of its Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board. The Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has so far collected and handed over more than Rs.35.62 crores as labour cess to the state government. Its town planning department has already collected Rs 8.39 crore in the current fiscal. However, the money or its benefits does not reach the intended beneficiaries. The region has witnessed multiple mishaps in which workers have lost their lives in freak mishaps at construction sites, but hardly any family has been duly compensated. “Our duty is limited to collecting and handing over the cess to the state government,” said a civic official. In an attempt to increase coverage and reach of the Provident Fund Act, the Central government has introduced generation of Unique ID number for construction workers mandating all contractors and principal employers to register labourers under the UAN number from August 25, 2015.