Haryana's opposition party has claimed of possesing information that reveals irregularities in the purchase of medicines in government hospitals, calling it a scam amounting to hundreds of crores and requesting the CBI to probe into the matter.

Haryana's main opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) on 18 March alleged there were irregularities to the tune of hundreds of crores in the purchase of medicines in state government hospitals and demanded a CBI probe in the matter. Norms were violated in the purchases made at the district level by the concerned officials over the past three years, INLD's Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala told a news conference.

He claimed that over the past one year the INLD gathered information from the five districts of Rewari, Hisar, Faridabad, Rohtak and Jind through the RTI mode, and alleged the "scam" in these districts was pegged to be at Rs 125 crore. "We have sought replies to our RTI queries from all the 22 districts, but today we are presenting before the media the information we have collated from the five districts. According to our estimates, the total scam woulf be well over Rs 300 crore and therefore, we are demanding a CBI inquiry into this," Chautala said.

According to the Government of Haryana, anything that has to be bought has to be purchased from a centralised quotation, which is approved by the state government and forwarded to various districts, he said. "There is a centralised purchase committee for buying of any kind of medicines or implements which are used in hospitals, for example cotton rolls, face masks, medicines and other equipment etc.

Over the past three years, there has been a government centralised tender, but every district called for their own quotations too, violating norms. They have not purchased at tender mode. Some items were purchased at highly inflated rates. For example, a face mask is worth 95 paise, but in Fatehabad that mask was purchased for Rs 4.95," alleged Chautala. He claimed that in Rohtak, there was a purchase of Hepatitis B medicine worth Rs 3 crores in a period of three-and-a-half months, but that purchase was not approved by any committee. Purchases were made with average quotations being above Rs 19 lakh, he claimed.

"According to state government rules, all tenders above Rs 5 lakh should be put on an on-line portal, but nowhere the process has been followed. We have evidences to back this," he said. In Jind district, where pregnancy strip government tender rate is Rs 2.80, it was purchased at the rate of Rs 28, Chautala claimed. He said the purchases were made under various schemes including the National Health Mission and "Mukhya Mantri Muft Ilaaj Yojana. Chautala also said that in some cases fake addresses were given of the companies/stores from where the purchases were made. "In one case, the address given turned out to be of a 'Dhobi' shop," he claimed.