Thiruvananthapuram: Huge amounts are being pilfered from the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) by an illegal nexus of government officials in district collectorates, doctors and private agents across Kerala. This was revealed in a series of simultaneous flash raids conducted by the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau (VACB) across the state on February 22.
The CMDRF, nourished mostly by public donations, is an emergency assistance scheme to provide relief for deserving families and individuals financially devastated by natural calamities or accidents or death of breadwinners, or serious diseases.
It has been found that certain private individuals, using their influence over officers in charge of the CMDRF section in district collectorates and with the aid of fake documents created with the help of corrupt government doctors, have been securing financial benefits for ineligible persons.
The documents submitted by these middlemen for the CMDRF relief - medical certificates and income certificates - were found forged.
Agent's cut
The VACB also came upon instances where even deserving persons had routed their CMDRF applications through these agents who, when the relief money reaches the account of the beneficiaries, demand a sizable share as commission.
For instance, the VACB sleuths discovered a curious pattern in 16 applications for which funds were released by the coastal panchayat of Anchuthengu in Thiruvananthapuram. In all of them, the contact number given was the same, as that of the agent. None of the applications had the contact number of the beneficiary.
This meant that the agent would be the first to know, in the form of an SMS alert on his mobile, when the relief amount reaches the account of the beneficiaries he had canvassed.
Even if these beneficiaries were deserving, the paperwork done was so shoddy that one of the beneficiaries received assistance for heart treatment when in reality he had liver disease. This was also an indication that the agent-Collectorate official nexus was firmly entrenched in the system.
Further, it is also evident that unsuspecting relief seekers are made to believe that it is virtually impossible to get relief without the help of agents.
Role of doctors
Government doctors play a crucial role in sustaining this illegal operation. When the VACB vetted 20 applications that were sanctioned money in Kollam, it was found that the medical certificates for 13 of them were provided by a single orthopedician.
In Karunagappally, 11 of the 14 illegal medical certificates were given by a single doctor. Interestingly, it was found that this Karunagappally doctor had furnished medical certificates for all four members of a family, not once but twice.
In Punalur taluk, a doctor had given a whopping 1500 faulty medical certificates. These medical certificates were granted even when the applications were not backed up by mandatory documents like copies of Aadhar and ration cards. A person who had not even appended his signature on the application form was sanctioned relief.
There were also medical certificates that looked seriously tampered with; the names and medical conditions on them were repeatedly struck off and overwritten.
In Malappuram's Nilambur, funds were sanctioned even in cases where the medical certificates did not contain treatment costs as is mandatory.
It was also found that non-specialist doctors had given medical certificates for serious ailments. In Palakkad, for instance, medical certificates for five applications seeking assistance for heart treatment were furnished by an ayurveda doctor, and all these applications were submitted by a single agent.
In Kasaragod, the VACB encountered even stranger things. It unearthed two medical certificates with the same handwriting but different signatures.
Ghost beneficiaries
However, agents work more to secure benefits for ghost applicants and the ineligible.
During the raids conducted in Kottayam district, it was found that a Mundakkayam native named George who was sanctioned Rs 5,000 for heart treatment in 2017 was sanctioned Rs 10,000 by the Idukki Collectorate for the same ailment in 2019. In 2020, the same George secured Rs 10,000 for cancer treatment from Kottayam Collectorate. In all three instances, the medical certificates were furnished by a government orthopedician in Kanjirappilly Government Hospital.
When the VACB sleuths gave a call on the number given in these applications, it was revealed that George did not exist. The distress relief was shared among the government official, agent and doctor.
In Idukki, too, the VACB came across instances where money was sanctioned without deserving beneficiaries.
In Ernakulam, the VACB came across rich non-resident Malayalis who had cornered hefty sums like Rs 3,00,000 and Rs 45,000 as medical assistance.
Raids on a tip-off
Such large-scale embezzlement has taken place even though the CMDRF is fully web managed and has supposedly become extremely transparent. Transfers to the end beneficiary are done through the Direct Bank Transfer system.
The raids were initiated following a tip-off received by the VACB about the massive corruption in the disbursal of CMDRF funds. As it stands, the CMDRF has collected Rs 5,744.51 crore; Rs 832.06 crore as COVID-19 donations and Rs 4912.45 crore as flood relief.
The raids ordered by Vigilance director Manoj Abraham were conducted under the supervision of Vigilance IG Harshitha Attalluri and were led by Police Superintendent Intelligence) E S Bijumon.
The Vigilance Director in a statement said that the public can pass on corruption-related information to the Vigilance toll-free number 1064 or 8592900900 or the Whatsapp number 9447789100.
