Faisal Fareed
Daijiworld Media Network - Lucknow
Lucknow, Nov 5: UP cop DIG (Fire Services) DD Mishra who raised a storm by accusing the state government for being neck deep in corruption was sent to mental asylum on Saturday. Presently he is admitted in private ward, Department of Psychiatry, CSM Medical University (CSMMU).
Opposition parties have cried foul and demanded a threadbare probe into the whole episode including dismissal of Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government. BJP, Samajwadi Party and Congress leaders claimed that Chief Minister Mayawati along with her coterie of officials was harassing upright officiers.
UP has witnessed several incidents where bureaucrats were harassed. One IAS Harminder Raj allegedly shot himself dead in his official residence. A manager in PCF hanged himself to death while two Chief Medical Officers (CMO), Dr VK Arya and Dr BP Singh were sprayed with bullets. One Deputy CMO Dr YS Sachan was found murdered inside jail premises in Lucknow. Another IAS Promila Shanker has been suspended for acting as whistleblower in Noida land scam case.
Meanwhile, the state government ordered a probe into the DIG Mishra's case by the Anti Corruption unit, an action termed too little by the opposition parties.
Social activists too have turned their ire towards the state government. Nutan Thakur, a leading social activist who has raised several scams in fire services department in the past remarked: "The accusations made by DD Mishra, DIG, Fire Service against Kunwar Fateh Bahdur, Principal Secretary, Home and other senior officers seem to be absolutely correct. As per my information, such a thing has happened previously in the Fire Department when RK Singh, Deputy Director (Technical-Second) was pressurized so much by SN Singh, the then ADG, Fire Service for writing favourable technical notes for purchase of a Hydraulic Platform that he went on conditional Medical Leave in January 2010".
Fire Department also has witnessed several other scams in the past. There is also the case of supply of about 50 Motor Fire Engines where two Breathing Operator Sets had been supplied with each Motor Engine by M/s United Manufacturing Limited, New Delhi. These Breathing sets were said to have no standard marks, neither the European Norm (EN), European Conformity (CE) nor even the ISI mark, which is essential for such a life-saving instrument. As per standard its capacity shall be 300 Bars charging capacity while the charging capacity of the supplied instrument was not more than 140 bars. This is because all these breathing sets are said to be duplicate instruments brought from some market in Delhi at around Rs. 20,000 per set, while paying Rs 1.65 lakhs per breathing set to the supplying company.
Even more serious is the fact that Aman Sharma, Chief Fire Officer, Moradabad had through his letter No CFO-Mis MT-10 to S N Singh, the then ADG, Fire Service, dated 29 March 2010, written clearly that these breathing sets were duplicate and hugely sub-standard. He had also written that these Operator sets did not have the required Face Mask Demand Regulator, which is essential for proper flow of air. He wrote that the tunings and the face mask were of poor quality. But despite this letter in his possession, S N Singh paid the bills for all these supplies. In the same way Diffuser pipes are said to be used in place of Branch pipes where the standard nozzle costs Rs 800 while the nozzle purchased are said to be sub-standard and brought at about Rs 200 each. These bills for thousands of nozzles at Rs 800 per nozzle were also cleared despite the adverse report of T P Awasthi, CFO, Bareilly.
"I wrote letters to Kunwar Fateh Bahadur, Principal Secretary, Home but the matter was thrown in the dustbin," said Nutan.
Meanwhile, following the hospitalisation of DIG (fire services) D D Mishra, medical experts opined that several other senior officers of the Indian Police Services (IPS) could be suffering from bipolar disorder, a mental condition marked by mood swings. Mood swings in bipolar depression usually include "highs" when individuals feel either on top of the world or on edge, and "lows" when they feel sad and hopeless.
Regarding the Mishra case, a panel of experts was formed by the district administration for his medical examination. The panel comprises head of psychiatry department, CSM Medical University (CSMMU), Prof PK Dalal and Dr Sunil Pandey, expert psychiatrist with state health department posted at Balrampur Hospital. Expert in medicine and cardiology, Prof AK Vaishya and Dr Rishi Sethi, were also a part of the team.
The panel examined Mishra here on Saturday afternoon and decided to keep him under observation for at least the next ten days to make a diagnosis despite the fact that he was physiologically fine. An IPS officer of the 1992 batch, Mishra would be allowed to interact only with doctors and close family members in the period of observation. In this while, he would be assessed against parameters like behaviour, sleep, appetite, social interaction, self expression among others. Each of these heads have scores of markers and a patient’s reaction to the same is noted on different times of the day and night.