Pragmatic Suggestion to CM, Odisha on COVID 19

To

Shri Navin Pattnaik                                                                            Date-30.3.20

Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha

Lok Seva Bhawan

Bhubaneswar 751001

Sub: Pragmatic and Constructive suggestions in our war against Covid-19 Pandemic

Honourable Chief Minister,

We, the concerned citizens and Social Activists  share your  concern  about emergency  situation created  due to outbreak of COVID-19  and subsequent  intervention of your Government  to fight out  the dreaded disease  in our state  and also put before you few suggestions required  to  make administrative machinery  more effective  and efficient to address the urgent problems.

1.At the outset, we  congratulate  you for taking numerous steps  i.e., allocation of Rs. 200 crore for awareness programme on COVID 19, daily media briefing on interventions of the State Govt., unequivocal support to the call of the Prime Minister  to observe mass Curfew, declaration of state Lockdown, plethora of advisories issued for various  preventive measures, issuing series  of instructions to Govt. and private Hospitals for treatment of patients, opening quarantine centres even at Panchayat level, creation of 2000 isolation beds for Corona-virus affected patients, compulsory on-line registration of the people coming from abroad, preventive measures like closing down of schools, colleges, religious festivals, film hall, malls and the list is long. We hope, these active measures will positively contribute in checking the spread of Corona virus.

2. But we are of the opinion that these interventions are not adequate. Our people are returning in thousands from different states like Delhi, Kerala, Maharasthra, Gujurat, Bihar, Tamilnadu and in hundreds even from  foreign countries. We see   absence  of  proper  mechanism to identify  and record their name  and  monitor  their quarantine home. Their testing and quarantine are not being conducted properly at village level. As Govt Hospitals  like CHC, PHC are not equipped, the Government must  take steps  to revamp it and rope in private hospitals, Nursing Homes and diagnostic houses in different  districts  with their staff and make arrangements there for immediate testing and treatment.

3. We learn that Testing Kits available in the state are not enough to screen the suspected cases that are mounting day to day and therefore request you to make adequate funding and procure adequate Testing Kits.

4. We appreciate your efforts at enforcing Social Distancing but a proper environment has to be created for availability of minimum essential commodities in the market. Unscrupulous traders and black-marketers are creating scarcity and demanding high prices. We request you to take immediate steps to streamline the transportation and distribution of daily necessities at and to critical spots in towns and villages through law and order machinery of the state. They should be given passes to move between the procurement points and the trading points. And violators be booked under law and not beaten mercilessly by police. It is time to treat the suffering people humanely. We know it is difficult, but can be done with will and determination.

5.  Lockdown should be an opportunity for the Police to be humane to the needs of the people. In any case physical torture should not be allowed as they endanger the health of people. We need not send you the video clippings about police torture as you might have been aware of it. We urge you to direct the police personnel not only to behave humanely but also to help people in need.

6. Loss of employment of daily wage labourers, construction workers, agriculture labourers due to lock-down has made them lose their source of livelihood and they are vulnerable to any virus attack. The Govt. should take immediate steps to make door-to-door inspections and ensure delivery of rations, subsidized price or free of cost as per the individual’s entitlement.

7.  The para-medical staff like ASHA workers, Anganwadi Workers, Health workers must be engaged in rural areas and movement of Govt. vehicles / Ambulance service 24x7 in the villages with involvement of Panchayat representatives.

8.  To counter outbreak of Corona virus, the Govt. has planned to spend huge amounts of money   under different programmes. The Govt. website opened especially on COVID-19 does not give any figure about utilization of initial fund of Rs. 200 crores, and now increased to 2200 Crs that you have sanctioned. As your good office propagates 5T and “Mo Sarkar” to enforce transparency, we urge you to direct officers to maintain transparency in allocation and utilization of fund by uploading all the information in website and also provide this information to media during media briefing conducted daily.

9. In Odisha in every disastrous situation, the Civil Society has played very vital role in rendering their voluntary services, distribution of relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation of  affected people and helping the administration to reach out services to the door-step of the  people. Corona virus is a different kind of disaster  which can not be  fought  only  at bureaucratic level. It requires support  and cooperation of  all section of society.  We suggest  that   the  Chief Minister  should give an open call  inviting volunteers  and  Civil Society  Groups seeking  their  voluntary  service, cooperation  and support to  combat  this dreaded disease.

10. Since last two  days, you  have declared  a number  of  packages  like ration for  94 lakh families, Meal  for 100 to 200  people  in each Gram pamchayat , Rs. 3000.00  per Street Vendors  in all urban areas,   payment  of advance monthly pensions to widow  and older persons etc.  in order to help the  people  in distress due  to lockdown. These packages need to  be  properly  distributed  and reached out  at the door-step  of the  people. From our past experience,  we  draw  your attention that  there is every  possibility  of  misutilization and misappropriation   of fund  in a corruption-ridden  state machinery by the officials  and the Panchayat  representatives. So  we urge you  to  devise  a robust  independent monitoring mechanism  starting  state  to  block –level involving  various  civil society  Groups  like  former MLAs, MPs, retired officers, retired  district  judges , Activists,  eminent  journalists  etc.  They  will  independently  monitor  all the  programmes  and report  to  Govt. for  further  action.  This  process  will  not  only  enforce  transparency  but  also  ensure  accountability  of the  service  delivery officials.

We  hope , you will  consider  our  suggestions  and   manage  this  critical situation effectively  and efficiently in the greater  interest  of the  people of the state.

Thanking you

Yours  sincerely

Kiran Sahu, President,  Keonjhar District  Citizen Forum , M- 9437054239

PradipPradhan, RTI Activist, Bhubaneswar, 9937843482

Sri Akhand, Human Rights  Activist, Puri, M- 7008816891

Mrs. Sanjukta Panigrahi, Woman Activist, Bhubaneswar, M- 9337903294

Srikant Pakal, RTI Activist, Cuttack, M-9338455092

SantoshMohanty, Advocate , Baripada, Mayurbhnaj, M- 9337029395

Copy to ;

1.       Chief Secretary, Govt. of Odisha

2.      Secretary, Dept. of Health  and Family Welfare, Govt.  of Odisha

3.      Pradeep Kumar Jena, Special  Relief Commissioner, Govt. of Odisha, BBhubaneswar

Collection of penalty under Odisha Right to Public Service Act

Collection of penalty under Odisha Right to Public Service Act

Dear friends

Odisha Right to Public Services Act, 2012   has empowered the citizens to demand public services as a right and access certain notified services within stipulated time period.  As per Rule 8 of Odisha Right to Public Service Act, 2012, there is provision of penalty to be imposed on Govt. officers failing to provide the service within the stipulated time frame. The penalty amount will be recovered from their salary/ honourarium/ remuneration. The penalty amount under the RTI Act is to be deposited in the head of  Account “ 0070-Other Administrative Services-60-Other services-800-Other Receipts-0097-Misc. Receipts-02214-Fines under Odisha Right to Public Services Act”.

To understand details of penalty amount collected so far, RTI Application was  filed  to the PIO, Dept. of GA & PG seeking  information about  penalty  collected  from 2013 to 2019. RTI Application was transferred to the office of Centre For Modernizing Government Initiatives ( CMGI)  to  provide  information. This  information was  collected  from the  Directorate of Treasuries  and Inspection, Odisha  and supplied  to me  on 19.3.20. The  details of  information supplied  by the PIO  is as follows.

Year	No. of officials  penalized	Amount
2013	51
2014	36
2015	16
2016	14
2017	19
2018	9
2019	6
Total	156	1,14,408.00

·          Penalty amount collected from defaulting officers  ranges  from  Rs. 10.00  to Rs.  12,000.00.

·         The  highest  penalty amount Rs.   11680.00 has been deposited by   JMFC, Aul in 2014.

·         Many  officials have  been imposed  just  Rs. 10.00  as penalty  for  failure  to deliver  service in time.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date-25.3.20

NHM maintains secrecy on Management of Ambulance Service in Odisha

NHM maintains secrecy on Management of  Ambulance  Service in Odisha

A High-level Inquiry  is required   into secret  deal  between officials  of NHM  and  Ziqitza Health  Care  limited

Dear  friends

In view  of widespread  allegation  by the  people in different districts   and  employees’ Union of  Ambulance  Service ( 108 and 102)  against  Ziqitza Health  Care  limited about  corruption and mismanagement  in Ambulance service ( Non-functional  of Ambulances, shortage  of staff , false Bill  etc.)  with support from  officials  of NHM, Odisha, RTI Application dt.10.2.20 was  filed in the  office of  National Health Mission, Odisha  seeking  some  information  including   the  following   important information.

·         Provide  list  of  pharmacists  engaged in Ambulance 108 and 102  who are  working  and left  along with  their qualification,  monthly  honorarium  which was  paid  each of them.  ( district-wise).

·         Provide details of various posts lying vacant for Ambulance 108 and 102 ( district-wise  and post-wise).

·         Provide  name  of  Monitoring  Officer  who have been engaged  by Govt. to monitor  this  work  in different  years . provide  date  of submission of  monitoring  report, if any  submitted  by them and copy  of Monitoring Report.

The  PIO  has denied  to provide  the  information on the  ground  of section 8 (1)(j) of the RTI Act ,  non-availability  of information and  with ill-motive  to keep  information secret.

As  per  available  information in public domain, NHM, Odisha , an implementing agency  of Govt. of Odisha  has entered  into  an agreement  with Ziqitza Health  Care  limited  to run  and  manage Odisha Emergency  Medical Ambulance Services (  512 EMAS)  and Referral transport  Services (  500 Janani Express) in all  30  districts. NHM  is the monitoring agency  to monitor  ambulance and see   in order  to provide  best  health service  to the  people.  The  Company Ziqitza Health  Care  limited   is accountable  to NHM, Odisha  for  all its  activities  as per  agreement. As  the  Chief Minister  speaks  of 5T  and Mo Sarkar, all  the  information about  Ambulance  service  must  be put  in public  domain  for  greater  transparency  in the   implementation of  this  project. The  Company  is duty-bound  to  provide  all the  information  as  and when  required  by NHM, Odisha.  As  per  information supplied  by the office of NHM, Odisha, a dedicated  Cell  is  functioning under supervision of Mission Director, NHM, Odisha  to monitor  Ambulance service  work.

But when  the  information about  list  of  Pharmacists  engaged  in Ambulance -108 and 102  is sought, the  office  of NHM, Odisha  denied  to supply  the said  information  under  section 8 (1) (j)  of the RTI Act  on the  ground of personal  information. It  is astonishing  how  name of the employees  are  personal  information.  In the website  of  Govt. of Odisha, we  found  name  of the Ministers , officers  and employees  with  their  contact  no.  are   web-hosted. When  the name  of Chief Minister, Ministers, officers  and  employees  including  peon  and Chouwkidar  is  in public domain, how   name of mere  pharmacists  can  not  be  disclosed by NHM, Odisha.  This  information is  required  to be  voluntarily  disclosed  under section 4 (1) (b)  of the RTI Act.

 On  another query  about details of  various  posts  lying  vacant  for ambulance  service,  the  PIO, office  of NHM, Odisha  has said that  the said  information is  not  available. It  is highly  astonishing  how  a Monitoring Authority with  a dedicated  Cell   does not  know  about  vacancy  of different  posts.  What  type  of monitoring  these  officers are  doing.  If the  said  information is not available, they must  ask the  Company  to provide  the same  as matter of transparency. Simply  denying  information under RTI Act  due  to non-availability  is crime . It is established that the allegation made   by the  Employees’ Union  about  huge vacancy  in the  post  of Pharmacist  and  other  employees  which  has brought  disaster  in Ambulance service   is   found  true  and based  on fact.  The  officers  of NHM, Odisha  are  hand in glove  with  the  Company  which is looting  us.

A High-level  inquiry  is  to be  conducted    to  investigate  the  functioning   and management  of  Ambulance  Service  and nexus  of officials of NHM, Odisha  and Ziqitza Health  Care  limited. The Ambulance  service  are  seen mismanaged  , the employees are  denied  proper  remuneration. Many of them are  retrenched  and the  Company  is looting  public money  bringing disaster  in health service.

I  present  herewith  number  of ambulances engaged  in different  districts  to monitor  whether  such number of  ambulance  is really  operating  or  not.

Sl. No.	District	Total No. of EMAS Ambulance	Total No. of  Referral transport Service ( Janani Express)
1	Angul	17	16
2	Balasore	27	29
3	Baragarh	18	15
4	Bhadrak	18	19
5	Bolangir	22	17
6	Boudh	8	5
7	Cuttack	26	33
8	Deogarh	4	3
9	Dhenkanal	15	15
10	Gajapati	7	6
11	Ganjam	35	44
12	Jagatsingh Pur	11	12
13	Jajpur	19	23
14	Jharsuguda	6	6
15	Kalahandi	21	17
16	Kandhamal	12	8
17	Kendrapara	15	15
18	Keonjhar	24	23
19	Khurda	23	28
20	Koraput	19	18
21	Malakangiri	10	8
22	Mayurbhanj	34	32
23	Nawarangpur	15	13
24	Nayagarh	13	10
25	Nuapara	9	7
26	Puri	20	21
27	Rayagada	15	12
28	Sambalpur	15	13
29	Sonepur	8	6
30	Sundargarh	26	26
	Total	512	500

Details of Amount  Released  to  Ziqitza Health  Care  limited   from January 2014  to December 2019

Period	Amount Released ( Rs. ) EMAS	Amount Released ( Rs. ) Referral transport
January  to March , 2014	11, 98,18,493.00	NIL
2014-15	54,55,50,570.00	7,37,70,825.00
2015-16	59,38,26,458.00	27,12,87,226.00
2016-17	61,19,28,140.00	40,68,12,233.00
2017-18	66,12,70,664.27	38,38,51,603.00
2018-19	72,81,51,104.57	31,65,88,962.00
2019-20 ( April 2019 to dec. 2019)	67,86,45,361.00	23,07,65,852.00

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 24.3.20