The health department has prodded Bihar Council of Medical Registration for its report in the case of some city doctors allegedly receiving cash from drug firms to prescribe their medicines.

The department swung into action after the Centre, which had earlier sought the report from the state, reminded the state to submit the report at the earliest.

Sources said the matter first came to light when Andhra Pradesh MP Ponnam Prabhakar wrote to the standing committee on chemicals and fertilisers, Government of India, in 2012, alleging that some doctors in the country were provided money by a particular pharmaceutical company to prescribe drugs of that company. Prabhakar's complaint had pointed a finger at some Patna-based doctors too.

The Centre apprised Bihar government the same year. But the state government did not follow up on the matter.

It took the state health department two years to finally ask the state medical council to probe the matter, sources said. The health department asked the Bihar Council of Medical Registration to probe the case only in April this year.

'Even after being informed in April, the state council has not carried out any investigation yet. The ethics committee of the state council has to investigate the matter,' said a source.

But state health secretary Anand Kishore said he had no knowledge of the matter. 'I don't know about this. I would have to check the facts,' Kishore said.

State Health Society administrative officer Rajnish Kumar said: 'We again referred the case to the state council last week. We have asked them to probe this so that we can reply to the Union government.'

Officials in the ethics committee, however, said the state council was yet to refer the matter to them. 'The matter has not come up before the ethics committee of Bihar Council of Medical Registration. As soon as the matter is reported,appropriate action would be taken against the erring doctors,' said Sunil Kumar Singh, member, ethics committee, Bihar Council of Medical Registration.

Bihar Council of Medical Registration president Narendra Prasad could not be contacted for comment despite several attempts.