The Indian Express 28.08.2012
Rampur civic body stops hospital aid, grants dole to Azam’s trust
THE Municipal Board of Rampur has sanctioned a grant of Rs 15 lakh annually to Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Trust, which is headed by Minister of Urban Development Azam Khan with his wife Tazeen Fatima as its secretary. The municipal board falls under the Urban Development Ministry.
Significantly, the municipal board has stopped the grant of Rs one lakh given annually to K D Dalmiya Eye Hospital in Rampur for treatment of poor patients. The hospital is controlled by a trust headed by the District Magistrate while the Chief Medical Officer is its secretary.
Confirming the news, municipal board chairman Azhar Ali Khan alleged that the hospital was squandering away the grant and did not help the poor, while the Jauhar Trust has been sanctioned the amount for the education of poor children. No inquiry, however, has been conducted so far into the alleged squandering of money by the hospital. “The hospital has increased the outpatient department fee from Re 1 to Rs 30. They also do not offer any rebate to poor patients. Dr Kishori Lal, who runs the hospital, also recruited his son in the hospital and made it a family business, so we have withdrawn the financial assistanc”,” said the board chairman.
He said the aid to Jauhar Trust is for education purposes only” “We have not given any money to the Jauhar University, it is for the education of poor children which will be funded by the Jauhar Trus”,” Azhar Ali Khan, who is also a member of the ruling Samajwadi Party and close to the minister, said.
The Jauhar Trust controls the Jauhar University, whose minority character has become a bone of contention between Azam and the Raj Bhawan.
The municipal boa’d’s executive officer Shahenshah Wali Khan said the decision to give Rs 15 lakh to the trust annuall” “was taken unanimously during the board’s meeting held on August 17. The financial assistance to the hospital has been stopped by the boa’d’s decision on”y”.
He did not say if any inquiry has held to ascertain fund utilisation by the hospital, which was established in 1971 by the then board chairman Ishrat Ali Khan. The Dalmia group had donated money for the construction of the
building.
At present, Dr Kishori Lal is looking after the affairs of the hospital as a member of the trust. His son Dr Vikram Lal manages the day-to-day affairs of the trust.”
“If they have any doubts about poor patients and their treatment, they are welcome any time. We submit audited account for the money which we receive from the Municipal Board. It is their decision and we cannot say much on th”s,” Vikram Lal said.
Rampur DM Anil Dhingra said he knew about the stoppage of municipal grant, but said he needed to get details from the municipal board.
There is also a political overtone to the incident. The grant to the hospital was sanctioned during the tenure of former board chairman Reshma Afroz in 1995. Her successor, Sardar Javed Ali Khan, continued it till 2011. Former chairman Ishrat Ali Khan, during whose tenure the board gave the land for the construction of the hopsital, was Reshma’s father-in-law. His son and Res’ma’s husband Afroz Ali Khan had defeated Azam in 1996. He also contested the 2012 Assembly election against Azam as a candidate of Amar Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Manch ticket, but lost.
