How would you feel if you manage to save crores of rupees from being plundered by politicians in the future? It is common for a journalist to get appreciation for a story, to make impact by influencing changes in an immediate situation but its perhaps the most satifying moment when she gets to impact policy making in a big way.
A journalist gets to write several stories in her career that make an impact. The earliest ones I wrote caused a change in the dean of JJ Hospital almost two decades ago. Come to think of it, JJ hospital has been one of my early lucky 'spots'. Many of my stories stirred up things there, not always because of the hospital's initiative. I remember when Sanjay Dutt was admitted to hospital supposedly for some ailment (dont remember the details now), and doctors clearly showed on his case papers that there was no need to keep him in an air-conditioned ICU, I wrote a story saying deserving patients were being deprived of an ICU bed because of the actor. The hospital did nothing, but the story was brought to the notice of the court and Dutt was shunted out.
That was a long, long while ago. Some interesting stories have exposed top guys, some others have changed policies for the better of society. Most journalists live for such moments and, with luck, do find them.
Today, I want to write about one particular story on request from a budding journalist friend. This story is actually almost three years old now but it is still in the news. It began with a whisper in my ear by a bureaucrat about the then CM Vilasrao Deshmukh commenting at a cabinet meeting while signing on a medical claim of an ex-MLA. "Someone should do a CBI inquiry into these claims," Deshmukh had apparently said, after saying which he dutifully signed on the dotted line. The CM needs these guys in politics. The claim, incidentally, was for Rs 50 lakh!
My work involved two phases: investigation and research. First, I needed data. I began working on medical claims filed by MLAs, past and present. A four-month long investigation ensued to find out how much money had been usurped through fraudulent claims and on what accounts. I found that if getting information was most difficult, intrepreting it was far worse. When I did get access to the claims, they were in random fashion -- the name of the MLA claiming the amount, the date and the sum. That's it. There was no information about the hospital, or the ailment for which the money was being claimed as a matter of their birthright.
Then I set about interpreting around 400 pages of material that i had collected. Among other things, I found a pattern. Some MLAs or ex-MLAs would claim a certain sum every month without fail, once for the father, then mother, then sister, and so on. Their family members kept falling ill by turns only to the extent of claiming their maximum entitlement per month.
The government had gallantly not framed any rules for medical reimbursements : there was no proforma for a claim, let alone rules. Each time someone decided to claim a high amount, all he needed to do is get the state approval as a "special case", which, I pointed out, was too easy to get. The state signed on endless claims without verifying their credibility-- like the one Vilasrao signed on.
Government servants lose medical benefits on retirement, but our elected representatives enjoy this privilege permanently on serving one single term.
I found the money reimbursed to each such MLA ran into lakhs of rupees. And the loss to the public thanks to these cheats was in several crores. And I had only analysed data of the past four years.
DNA published a full-page plus half the front page account of this shocking scam conducted by elected representatives in full public view. The Janhit Manch filed a PIL based on my report and the Bombay high court ordered an inquiry.
The state admitted it had no proper framework, policies or any real ceiling. In an interim order, the high court asked the government to form a committee to appraise past claims mentioned in the report and another committee on a permanent basis to scrutinise every medical claim in the future. Two MLAs have already returned excess claims of around Rs 20 lakh and many more are in the process of doing so.
The case is still being heard in the high court but, already, the government has been asked to put a proper system in place. In addition, a permanent committee will now pore over every bill to verify its authenticity. In effect, a saving of crores of rupees in the future as well.
Moments like these make you feel maybe my choice of profession was worth it. hmmm...