The minister has been complaining for some time past that his orders are not been taken seriously by certain department officials. He has ordered inquiries to be conducted into a number of complaints being received by the state health department from the general public. These complaints were forwarded to officials of various wings, but Mittal found to his dismay that no further action had been taken on them.
Consequently, he suspended assistant Rajinder Arora and ordered the transfers of Paramjit Singh, Prithpal Singh and Sandeep Singh. The minister has ordered the department officials to submit inquiry reports by July 1 on all complaints sent to them for this purpose. He has also called for a full report on complaints received till March 16 last year, in which inquiries are still pending. The minister has also asked officials for compiling a list of personnel who have remained posted in the same seat for the past many years. He has given clear indications that he would like to shift them elsewhere.
It may be mentioned here that the health department officials are already facing flak for purchasing huge quantities of medicine for epilepsy for supply to government hospitals in the state. One estimate is that the quantity of medicine purchased was 23 times more than the requirement.
