Asit Patra

June 14: The Hooghly zilla parishad chief stepped down today under instructions from the CPM brass after being accused of siphoning away mo-ney meant for medicines in district hospitals.

Sources said Asit Patra was told to resign barely two days after the preliminary findings of a health department probe reached the party, the promptness suggesting that the CPM, which had often brazened out charges against leaders in the past, accepts the need for “rectification” after successive electoral routs.

Patra is a district secreta-riat member of the party and local CPM sources described him as a “high-profile leader”.

A source in the Hooghly CPM unit said “the health de-partment probe had indicted Patra”, the ex-officio head of the district health committee, for producing “inflated medicine bills” in connivance with health officials. “The district party unit held an emergency meeting yesterday and asked him to quit,” the source said.

The state party leadership at Alimuddin Street had greenlighted the district unit’s crackdown on Patra, CPM state secretariat member Benoy Konar said.

The committee headed by Patra clears the purchase of about Rs 5 crore worth of medicines and allied supplies for five hospitals in the district every year.

Party sources said the committee’s chief had allegedly signed bills against which no medicines had been bought.

State health service director Aniruddha Kar said in Calcutta: “Irregularities to the tune of a few crores had been detect-ed in the purchase of drugs and the health department is conducting a detailed inquiry.”

Patra, 61, said he had resigned “accepting moral responsibility” for the “irregularities in the purchase of medicines by the committee”.

Konar said he could not recall another leader of such seniority being forced to resign following a corruption charge.

In the late ’80s, after SFI leader Alokesh Das was accused of setting several important Kalyani University documents on fire, the party had refused to take any action against him. Das later went on to become an MP.

However, the situation has changed, CPM insiders said. Of the 12 Hooghly municipalities that went to the polls on May 30, the Left has bagged only one. It had won eight of the 12 last time.

“We want the organisation to be rid of corrupt people, regardless of what post he or she is holding. We have to refur- bish the party’s image, which has taken a beating in recent years. Only a clean organisation and its dedicated workers can counter the Opposition,” a CPM central committee member said.

Officials in Calcutta said that according to procedure, the health department would file a police case after completing its inquiry.