DME Disposes Replies Of 14 SAS Officers Caught In MP Nursing Scam; Matter Closed After Officials Claim No Irregularities Found

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Director of Medical Education (DME) has disposed of the replies submitted by 14 officers of the State Administrative Service (SAS) in connection with the nursing college scam.

While the General Administration Department (GAD) had issued notices to these officers in June 2024 regarding alleged irregularities in inspections and reports, the matter was ultimately closed without further action.

During the latest hearing, the court questioned the status of compliance and sought clarity on the role of officials who handled the inspection reports. The next hearing will take place on May 10.

In June 2024, the GAD issued notice to 14 collectors regarding the inspection and recognition of nursing colleges in the state. As per rules, nursing institutions are inspected by teams that include officials from the Medical Education Department and local revenue officers before granting recognition.

During 2022-23, several such inspection teams visited nursing colleges across different districts. Some institutions were marked as "Suitable" and recommended for approval. During the proceedings, the court found discrepancies and classified 66 institutions, earlier marked "Suitable" as "Unsuitable" based on doubts about their inspection reports.

Following this, the officers submitted their answers to the GAD, which were later forwarded to the Director of Medical Education (DME), but no action followed and the matter was ultimately disposed of.

Advocate Vishal Baghel, appearing for the petitioner, said that in their reply the deputy collectors told him that when they inspected the colleges there were no irregularities. Baghel further termed it a "clear case of contempt of court", accusing authorities of protecting those involved in irregularities.

Notice issued to the then SAS of 14 districts Kailash Parte (Raisen), Bhupendra Rawat (Dhar), Pratul Chandra Sinha (Rau, Indore), Anil Soni (Shahpur, Betul), Manoj Verma (Govindpura, Bhopal), Pushpendra Ahakey (Mandla), CL Verma (Deori, Sagar), Madan Singh Raghuvanshi (Itarsi, Narmadapuram), Kalyani Pandey (Ujjain), Kshitij Sharma (Kolar, Bhopal), Manoj Upadhyay (Bhopal), Roshni Patidar (Dhar), Ashok Jadhav (Khandwa), and DK Pandey (Shahdol).