New Delhi
We will start with incompetence and foolishness of the two Ministers. Mr Gandhi, a social activist wrote a letter dated 12 th Nov, 2014 to Mr Ahir, pointing out massive corruption in National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority during UPA time and inviting reference to letters written by him to two former Chairmen and requested him to acknowledge the letter and take action against guilty officers. What to say of acknowledging the receipt of letter, the same is not examined till date. Would you not call such Ministers as foolish and incompetent and curse on Modi Govt? Even now examine what he is saying even if you have iota of love for honesty. We have placed this letter on our website at Annexure I so that the entire public knows as to what the two jokers as Ministers are doing without any sense of responsibility. Always remember that ego kills and if you have no sense of doing or understanding anything then get out of the Govt and do not waste everybody’s time is our suggestion.
2.As regards review of the said case based on Delhi High Court direction in the Ministry by one Mr Maggo, they never thought that there is system of rotation of officers within the Ministry, how was review given, who would give, what would be its contents and check points and whether there is a need for any change. Aggrieved company files a review if they are aggrieved by any order issued under paragraphs mentioned in paragraph 22 of DPCO, 1995.
Right to review also lies with the Ministry where powers have not been delegated to NPPA and also against the general wrongs of NPPA under the powers to oversee the functioning of NPPA. What Ministry has been doing, particularly, Mr Maggo, is that review application received is sent to NPPA without any examination by the Ministry. Comments received from NPPA are not sent to the aggrieved party nor are they examined in the Ministry but on the day of hearing summary prepared by his office containing points agitated by the company and the response of NPPA are given. This is fundamentally wrong and you cannot beat the path of UPA Govt. The response of NPPA may contain new points which may not be even part of the notice but they are allowed but the company is not allowed to raise new points but have to respond to these points at the hearing only. It is clear that review is one sided as written views of the company must be called on the points raised by NPPA/agreed by Ministry before the hearing.
After the hearing, the reviewing officer records his findings which are again not shared with the company. It was for the two Ministers to see whether the system is OK or needed some changes keeping in view the scope of review as outlined by the Supreme Court in Cyanamid case. Since Minister is the reviewing authority he should have looked at all these aspects and decided as to what would be placed before him before submitting the file to him. One of the aspects he should have looked at is what were the decisions in similar cases in past. Were there any deviations from the provisions of DPCO,1995 in the past or is the deviation being made now? Are the provisions being uni formally followed or are there any deviations ? Even this would have exposed the corruption of the past but both the Ministers proved that they are really incompetent and foolish and with each passing day they would become a liability in the manner they are acting. By the way what Bharatis like Joint Secretary and Secretary have been doing need no mention as they have to hide everything and are strangely even hardly bothered about administrative aspects as this case reveals.
3. A copy of the review order passed by the Ministry dated 19th Oct, 2015(WP 1838/2014) in case of Softsule is available on the website of the Ministry. The reviewing authority is one person who is also there for the past over 8 years and is a party to all the wrong doings and he is the signatory of this letter. All others right up to Minister have not applied their mind and are signatories as those also gain who stand and wait. The so called reviewing authority has concluded as under:-
(a)The overcharging liability will be from the date of amendment of notification S.O. No.1665(E) dated 27th Sept, 2007 that is 27th Nov, 2008 and not from the date of notification.
(b)if NPPA wishes to initiate action under paragraph 8(6) for marketing without price approval it may do so as per the extant provisions of law.
4.As regards (a) above, no efforts were made to go into the merits of the notification and all the issues raised by the company were ignored and even attention was not invited to the decisions taken in similar cases. We invite attention to paragraph 5 of the order. It is seen that product of Softsule contains Carbonyl Iron. NPPA have vide its notification S.O. No. 2769 (E) dated 27th November 2008 which was issued after the base notification of 27th Sept, 2007 in another identical case sought to fix a higher price for a formulation at entry S. No.2 as it contained Carbonyl Iron. This was enough to declare that product of Softsule is not covered under the notification S.O.No.1665(E) dated 27th Sept, 2007 if NPPA’s own decision is consistently followed but both the Ministers advised by their Secretary erred on this account. Do you requi8re8 such Secretaries and Joint Secretaries who cannot even ensure consistency which is the hall mark of any honest, transparent and impartial system. The product also contained Betacarotene which was not contained in S.O.No.1665(E) dated 27th Sept, 2007 read with Note 1 and as such its price was not built into the notified price. We have listed the ingredient in the notification which was not covered in notification dated 27th Sept, 2007 and lead to fixation of separate and specific ceiling price along with S.No.in Notification S.O. No. 2041 (E) dated 30th Nov, 2007 issued after the base notification(products at S.No.4(L-Histidine Hcl, L-Lyscine Hcl, Glycine), S.No 5(Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Docosahexaeonic Acid), S.No6(Whey Protein Isolate, L- Leucine etc), S.No 7( L-Histidine Hcl, L- Lysinie Hcl, Glysine) S.No.8( L- Arginine Hcl etc), S.No.9( Beta Carotene), S.No.10( Betacartene), S.No.11( Natural Betacarotene with other mixed Cartenoids, Spirulina etc), S.No.12( Omega -3- fatty acid, DHA), S.No13( Lycophene, L Arginine). It would be observed that Betacarotene is one of them. The formulation of Softsule as such was not covered under the said notification if NPPA’s own decisions are indicators on both the above two accounts. Ministers as such are careless or were mislead by their Secretary on this account as well. It is thus clear that there were different type of decisions for different people and there was no rule of law which was followed. Since reviewing authority is in league with NPPA, it is the duty of the Courts to establish rule of law rather than dealing with individual cases as courts orders are being wrongly interpreted by cherry picking here and there. Two foolish Ministers should hang their head in shame as NPPA’s corruption they have taken on to themselves. They can blacken their faces but do not blacken the face of the Govt with their foolish acts as is clear from these facts which are illustrative live decisions but cases of cherry picking are large in number. By the way what is the role of Joint Secretary and Secretary. Are they merely signing machines, there needs to be an investigation of the murki deals of UPA to which the present Govt should not become a party? Let Mr Subramanian Swamy take up this case also as we have placed enough ammunition on our website.
5.As regards (b) above the wording needs to be noted(if NPPA wishes as if there is wish list of NPPA and it is not required to follow any rule of law) and it is clear that both NPPA and Ministry are deeply involved in corruption. In a review order everything is left to the wishes of NPPA as if NPPA is the boss. Was this point the subject matter of notice to the company, the answer is no. Was the company given notice to come prepared on this point, the answer is no? Is there any relevance of this point after DPCO, 1995 have ceased to operate, the answer is no? Did NPPA not commit to issue notices in all such cases of paragraph 8 violations in one of its meetings while written communication of one of the members of Body of experts was discussed but have been conciously and deliberately ignoring the aspect of issuing notices? The facts contained in an RTI dated 8th Oct, 2013 by an RTI activist, a copy of which have been displayed on our website at Annexure II and some of them were also before DPCO, 1995 ceased to operate have been ignored. NPPA have been consciously allowing big companies to charge their own prices for 8 to 10 years and fleece the consumers without taking action and on complaints fixed fake prices to prove their effectiveness in fixing prices. We display factual details at Annexure III on our website from two meetings of the Body of Experts which would show alarming position. In fact there have been number of meetings. There is no quarrel or dispute over the issue that this happened during UPA Govt time but then everybody saw the Minister asking Rahul Gandhi so as to know the name of essential medicine price of which had gone up but did not do his home task to confront him with these facts nor took action against guilty officers including NPPA Chairman appointed by UPA Govt. Being a reviewing authority were these facts brought to the notice of two Ministers and if yes Ministers are responsible as reviewing authority and if not, then officers are responsible but Ministers cannot be expected to be blind and careless and for such lapses boot out your Secretary instead of blackening your face and also the face of the Govt of which you are a part. Let the entire public see the facts by visiting our website. The Ministers need to be reprimanded and condemned for such acts by the concerned as well as the general public as clearly from all accounts they appear incompetent to handle such matters.
6. The review order is clearly wrong and without any basis and even issuance of notice is wrong and without basis. Since both the Ministers have erred as is clear, the review order passed by them may be withdrawn and proper and fair order be passed based on facts which may be got examined from new chairman. If the Department of Pharmaceuticals fails to do so, one has to pin hopes on the court to do justice and unearth massive scam. A time has come when court instead of being mislead should pass strictures against all concerned and order investigation into the functioning of NPPA, officers of the Ministry and the two Ministers. PMO should look to such instances seriously and not routine and our website must be visited to pick up all the details to identify wrong doers as when corrupt and their corruption rules the roast nothing else is liked and is possible.
