Month on, AIIMS yet to withdraw whistleblower Sanjiv Chaturvedi’s donated money

One month after former Chief Vigilance Officer of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Magsaysay award winner Sanjiv Chaturvedi donated the entire award money to AIIMS for treatment of poor patients, the money has not been transferred to the AIIMS account. Instead, the Institute administration has sought the health ministry’s directions, something Chaturvedi says is not done in the case of donations by private individuals.

The award was conferred on August 31 and the award money amounted to $30,000 (about Rs 19.9 lakh at the exchange rate prevailing that day). On September 21, Chaturvedi wrote to AIIMS director Dr MC Misra stating that he was pledging the money “for providing financial assistance for the treatment of poor patients, particularly those affected by various types of cancer”. He gave a cheque amounting to Rs 14.23 lakh after depositing advance income tax of Rs 5.63 lakh on the award money.

On September 22, the deputy director administration of AIIMS, V Srinivas, wrote to Joint secretary Ali Rizvi in the health ministry enclosing Chaturvedi’s letter to the director. “May I request you to examine the proposal under extent (sic) rules and advise the Institute on the further course of action,” stated Srinivas. He added that the cheque had been sent to the medical superintendent with the request that he ought “to await government directions in this regard”. “Approval of competent authority would be required in this regard,” he added. The pledged amount remains in Chaturvedi’s account awaiting a government decision.

On October 20, Chaturvedi wrote to Dr Misra pointing out that the award money donated by him had not been withdrawn from his account and deposited into the institute’s account.

“I have come to know that even this matter has been referred to the ministry which simply reflects the insensitive partisan attitude of the institute administration towards such an urgent issue. This is particularly unfortunate in view of the fact that in no other case of any similar donation, by a private individual, the matter was ever referred to the Ministry,” stated Chaturvedi’s letter, adding that the ministry which claimed efficiency was sitting over the issue for the past one month.

“I know that you and the establishment is annoyed with me because of exposing various corruption cases involving well connected institute functionaries but I had never expected that this would ever come in the way of even such issues which are purely humanitarian ones, related to the help of poor patients visiting the institute, and should have been strictly kept out of all ulterior considerations,” stated the letter. Chaturvedi requested Dr Misra to ensure that the amount was deposited into the Institute’s account at the earliest and utilised to help poor patients.

TOI’s attempts to get a response from Dr Misra and from Rizvi elicited no reaction. Ironically, earlier this week the finance minister had announced that those donating to AIIMS would get a tax deduction for the donated amount, since it was an institute of national excellence and this would help attract more philanthropy for patient services.