Staff Reporter
SHILLONG:
Activist Disparsing Rani filed an RTI at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Finance Division) which revealed that the central release of grants-in-aid through National Health Mission for COVID-19 activities is Rs 15.61 crores in phase I and Rs 104.12 crores in phase II.
The release of funds under Phase I is centrally funded, and the release of funds in Phase II is as per the approved center – state funding under NHM.
Addressing a press conference on January 30, Rani said, “Rs 119 crore was released from Delhi, while the Health Minister (James Sangma) said that Rs 76 crore was sanctioned by the Center, and this leaves Rs 43 crore unaccounted for. This shows that corruption is huge here.”
He also filed an RTI at the state health department on the status of the payment of Rs 50,000 to the next of kin of the COVID-19 patients, the state health department failed to provide a reply to the query.