Pune: State disability commissioner Pravin Puri has written to the principal secretary of medical education seeking an independent inquiry to ascertain if Pimpri-based Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH) followed all norms before issuing a disability certificate to probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar. Puri has, in his letter on Aug 27, referred to a report by hospital dean Dr Rajendra Wable that claimed no irregularity was found in the grant of the certificate in Aug last year. Wable was the certificate-issuing authority and also conducted an inquiry into the matter, which was incorrect, Puri pointed out.
"We can't have the certifying authority conducting the inquiry too. Hence, we have written to higher officials to order an independent probe by administrative officials from other units," Puri told TOI on Thursday. When contacted, principal secretary of medical education Dinesh Waghmare confirmed that he had received the disability commissioner's letter about Khedkar.
"However, YCMH does not come under the directorate of medical education and research. It falls under the urban development department's Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). We will forward the letter to officials concerned and they will look into this issue," Waghmare said.
On his part, Dr Wable said he is aware of the letter. "Since YCMH comes under PCMC, the municipal commissioner may form another committee in this regard as the letter has sought an independent inquiry." The disability commissioner had in July written to the Pune district Collector and the Pune police commissioner urging them to probe the authenticity of Khedkar's disability certificate and register a case if the document was found fake.
Puri had also sought an investigation to establish if a fake disability certificate racket was in operation. The collector's office had asked YCMH to carry out an inquiry. Dr Wable then sought reports from the orthopaedic and physiotherapy departments as the two units were involved in Khedkar's clinical assessment.
YCMH submitted its inquiry report to the collector, stating that the certificate for 7% locomotor disability issued to Khedkar was genuine. It was then forwarded to Puri. The YCMH report said no foul play was found in the procedure followed to issue the disability certificate and it was given to Khedkar following a clinical assessment and investigation as per the Central govt's guidelines.
"She has 7% permanent disability in relation to her left lower limb as per guidelines (for the purpose of assessing the extent of specified disability in a person included under the RPwD Act, 2016, identified by the govt of India)," the certificate stated. Puri's letter to Waghmare stated that there was a mention of an MRI scan sought by Khedkar from a private hospital, but there was no mention of the name of that hospital in the report submitted by YCMH. "Was the MRI certified by YCMH and was the health department aware of it? This needs to be probed, and so an independent inquiry is needed," the letter said.
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