Health Ministry demands complaint against former civil surgeon for embezzlement

The office of the Director of Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, in a letter addressed to Civil Surgeon, Tarn Taran, has given instructions to register a criminal case against the then Civil Surgeon, Dr. Kamalpal, for misappropriation of grants worth Rs 32 lakh issued by the state. government under the “Mukh Mantri Motia Mukat Abhiyan”.

In the letter, the department director said that Dr Kamalpal had forged the signatures of the district program committee to misappropriate the grants. Dr Navneet Singh Minhas, district nodal officer of the National Program for Prevention of Blindness (NPPB), has lodged a complaint with the state nodal officer of the program in this regard. The department formed a three-member committee to probe the complaint which revealed lapses in the form of forged signature of the committee members.

Present Civil Surgeon Dr Gurpreet Singh Rai confirmed that the letter seeking registration of the case against Dr Kamalpal was received by his office. Dr Rai said the services of Accounts Officer Harash Kumar have already been suspended in this regard.

Dr Rai said the matter was also being investigated by the Vigilance Bureau (VB). According to reports, Dr Kamalpal allegedly forged the signatures of the district committee members to send the amount to the company from where the material was purchased for the NPPB project. Under this program, the department organizes eye camps and seminars to create awareness among people about eye safety.