Budgam, Mar 27: Having failed to act in the face of a salary scam in the Block Medical Office (BMO) Budgam, the concerned Chief Medical Officer (CMO), just to save his skin, is now claiming that he had already initiated action against the accused Senior Assistant three days prior to the expose of fraud by this newspaper.

Asked if it was so, why he kept quiet until March 13 when a report exposing the fraud was carried by this newspaper, the CMO had no answers.

“What is your story…, the action against Senior Assistant was initiated before 13th March,” CMO Budgam, Ghulam Mohammad Dar said while evading related questions.

But his boss – Director Health Services, Kashmr, Dr. Saleem-ur-Rehman – was more forthcoming in honest confession that he initiated punitive action against the erring officials immediately after ‘Kashmir Images’ reported the scam on March 13.

          Follow Up

With the insiders in the Health department hinting at the possible involvement of the CMO himself, sources privy to the developments ask: “If the CMO has taken the action on March 10 (by placing Senior Assistant under suspension), then why did he choose to remain silent until March 13 (when the scam was reported by this newspaper)?”

When this reporter tried to contact the CMO again with the query, the officer refused to comment saying “I am busy”.

As per the Dispatch Register (DR), the CMO has suspended the accused Senior Assistant on March 10, vide serial number 2192-95 (a). However, sources privy to this development said that Senior Assistant was actually suspended after March 13.

“In order to save himself, the CMO has made an insertion in the Dispatch Register,” sources in the BMO say.

The font in the Dispatch Register — copy of which is with ‘Kashmir Images’ — clearly indicates that the insertion has been made as an afterthought.

“CMO has repeated the serial number 2192-95 and added “(a)” at the end, while as no other serial number has been repeated in the DR before,” sources pointed out.

Interestingly, when ‘Kashmir Images’ carried a report titled “Salary of BMO Budgam employees vanishes in thin air” on March 13, at that time neither the CMO nor BMO divulged any information about the suspension of the concerned Senior Assistant. It was only after the publication of the news report that the Director Health, Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman swung into action and ordered a probe.

Meanwhile, employees in the Health department have requested Dr Rehman to look into all angles of this scam so that the culprits involved in this fraud are taken to task.