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MLAs get treatment, but you suffer

These figures will give you an idea of what our elected representatives have been claiming as reimbursement for medical expenses.

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The tax-payer is paying heavily for inflated medical reimbursement claims made by the state’s MLAs and MLCs. In 2004-05, Maharashtra spent Rs 55 crore to reimburse the medical expenses of its MLAs and public servants.

Not an extraordinary amount for 20 lakh state employees, but questions crop up when it emerges that a sizeable chunk of this amount was taken up by MLAs and ex-MLAs, some of them for dubious health problems.

Invoking the Right to Information Act, DNA sought information about reimbursements for medical expenses made to elected representatives in the last four years, from 2001-02 to 2004-05.

The copious data made available to us proved to be an eye-opener (see graphic for details). A regional pattern too became apparent: Marathwada topped the claims list with MLAs drawing out consistently high amounts, while relatively prosperous regions such as Mumbai, Thane, Pune and even Konkan have had fewer claimants. One MLA claimed Rs30 lakh, presumably because of treatment abroad.

No ceiling on claims: There is no bar on the amount elected representatives can claim as medical expenses for themselves and their families (including parents). This privilege is for their entire lifetime, unlike government servants and the judiciary.

Some basic conditions do exist, but officials say these are flouted routinely. The rules decree that hospitalisation expenses will be borne fully by the State only if the person has been admitted to a public hospital or to any of the listed private hospitals for a range of notified ailments. For instance, Bombay Hospital and Jaslok are two hospitals notified for heart disease.

In case the elected representative or his family member has to be admitted to a private hospital not on the list, he can claim reimbursement only up to a ceiling of Rs40,000, set by an April 2005 government resolution. “Any bills overshooting this amount are supposed to be referred to a secretarial committee and cleared as special sanction,” explains health secretary Dr Vijay Satbir Singh.

But these norms are hardly followed. Officials in the know say almost all claims are reimbursed without any questioning. Says a member of the secretarial committee, “Every month, we get about four of five claims but these are mostly to do with government staff. We barely had one or two claims made by an MLA referred to us in the past year.’’

In exceptional cases, when the amount is too huge (for example, if the claimant has been treated abroad), the matter lands up before the Cabinet. One of the claims awaiting the Cabinet’s approval last year ran into tens of lakhs of rupees.

Though it bothered him then, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh did sign it, considering how critical the support of MLAs is for his government. But he apparently remarked, “This scam should be subjected to a CBI inquiry.”

Proper records missing: There is no central database of payments made to politicians for their medical expenses. Each district has a treasury office that keeps its own record of payments. While some record the hospital and disease in their logbooks, some don’t. All medical bills pass from the legislature secretariat to the directorate of accounts and treasuries.

From there, they go to the accountant-general’s office, says joint director of accounts and treasuries, V K Shilarkar. The directorate merely keeps a record of the bills. So, it is difficult to know who was hospitalised, where and for what. All the information the directorate can part with is the amount, the MLA or ex-MLA’s name and in whose name (family or self) the claim was made.

For information, DNA applied to the legislature secretariat, but it passed the buck to the directorate of accounts and treasuries. The directorate itself had a mammoth job of collecting  information from six divisions, which in turn had to approach the district authorities.

Interesting figures
Payments made from the Mumbai Pay and Accounts office:
Pramod Navalkar, MLC, claimed Rs6.1 lakh in 2003-04 and 2004-05 for himself.
Subhash Sabne, MLA, claimed Rs5,04,461 for his wife, son and daughter in 2003-04. Nitin Patil, MLA, claimed Rs8,37,551 for himself in 2000-01 and 2001-02 including a lump sum of Rs8,01,131 and Rs20,000 in 2001-02.

N P Hirani, MLC, claimed Rs6,57,592 in a single instance for himself in 2004-05. Dilip Kumar Sananda, an MLA from  Buldhana district, claimed Rs12,31,359 mainly for his mother's treatment including Rs6.37 lakh for kidney treatment at Bombay Hospital and another Rs1.26 lakh for his son from 2001-02 to 2004-05.

Osmanabad MLA Padamsinh Patil claimed Rs10,85,363 in 2004-05. S A Shinde, ex-MLA from Satara claimed Rs6,08,710 over four years.  B D Shinde, again from Satara, claimed Rs4,78,870 in 2001-02 including a lump sum of Rs3,47,294, Rs5,84,900 in 2002-03 including a lump sum of Rs3,78,608, Rs1,03,526 in 2003-04 and Rs77,233, all for his treatment.

Suresh Warpudkar, Independent MLA from Singnapur in Parbhani district, claimed Rs4,25,558 for himself and his wife in 2004-05. In Jamner district, one MLA claimed Rs11, 97,305 in 2002-03. His name is not disclosed  Arvind Lele, ex-MLA from Pune district, claimed Rs4,93,124 over three years from 2002-03 to 2004-05.

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