Saryu claims RBI server shutting down prevented amount transfer to Banna’s men 

Jamshedpur, April 16: Independent lawmaker from Jamshedpur East Saryu Roy continued his tirade against state health minister and his political adversary Banna Gupta with another letter to chief minister Hemant Soren on Covid incentive misappropriation on Saturday.

The letter to the chief minister informs about the health department office order issued on Friday which was a gazetted holiday on account of Good Friday.

“In this notification, the yellow letter number GA.S.No.-449/Go., dated-14.04.2022, sent by the Health Minister is mentioned. This yellow paper has also been issued on 14th April, a holiday. The language of the letter is self-evident and quirky. Manoj Kumar Sinha joint secretary to the Government or a private Secretary to the Health Minister? As if they have abandoned the administrative process and terminology. In this office order, there is a mention of taking decisions on the basis of morality. Approval has been taken from the competent level on this order or it has been issued in anticipation of acceptance? Issuance of such letter and notification during the holiday period is indicative of the possibility of fraud and scam in the allocation of Covid incentive amount by the Health Department. After all, who are the Health Minister and his joint secretary betraying and what are they trying to hide? Their conduct seems suspicious,” the letter states.

“The minister who wrote the yellow paper and the joint secretary who issued the notification is well aware that he sent a letter to 60 employees of the minister’s treasury in the project building treasury at 9.00 pm on March 31, 2022 to give Covid incentive money. This bill was passed by the treasury and sent to PMU in the process of sending this amount to his bank account. But due to slow down of PMU server and shutdown of RBI server at 11.00 pm, the incentive amount was not transferred to their account and lapsed due to the lapse of the financial year. Those whose money was withdrawn before this went into their bank account,” the letter informs.

The letter alleges that despite knowing this information, “the Health Minister is writing a yellow paper and his Joint Secretary is issuing a misleading notification. It seems that both of them have a joint role in the health department’s Covid incentive money scam and are conspiring to cover up the scam by opening the office despite the government offices being closed on holidays and disregarding the administrative work process. You are aware that in the Health Department, an amount of above Rs 100 crore has been estimated to be given as Covid incentive. It should be known what happened to the Covid incentive amount?”

The letter request the chief minister that in view of the above mentioned facts, order should be issued to confiscate all the files of Covid incentive amount and get a high level inquiry conducted into the process of release of Covid incentive amount.

Meanwhile, Banna Gupta’s personal secretary Prabhat Thakur in a press communique writes,  that Saryu Roy is telling lies on lies and making fabricated allegations to prove one of his false statements to be true.

“In the last four-five days, First, without any concrete information, in a hurry, Saryu Rot alleges that health minister  did a scam of crores by withdrawing for the distribution of incentive money in the name of Covid, then accused the employees of Minister cell of wastage of funds. When MLA Saryu Roy was asked for proof of withdrawal of incentive money and asked to desist from baseless allegations, today issued a new statement saying that due to server shutdown on March 31, money was not withdrawn! After all, on what basis till now Saryu Roy had made such serious allegations against a popular and spotless minister Banna Gupta,” the release said.