Difficult for Maya, SSS to wash off hands

This makes it virtually impossible for the two to wash their hands of what happened in the NRHM scam, because all files would finally have been cleared by Singh and some policy related matter would have required Maya's final approval.
The order was very clear on how the system would operate. A file related to a particular matter was to be sent from the chief minister's office to the office of the principal secretary of the department concerned.The principal secretary was then supposed to forward the files to the secretary of his/her department. After noting their observations and recommendations on the file, the secretary was supposed to send it back to the cabinet secretary and chief minister for final approval via the principal secretary. After approval of the cabinet secretary and the chief minister, the file was sent to the secretary for execution.Now, from 2007 to 2009, Mayawati headed the family welfare department, which is at the heart of the Rs 5,700-crore scam. In 2009, the ministry went to Mayawati's trusted aide, Babu Singh Kushwaha, who has been arrested in the scam.
But BSP claimed that when Maya headed the ministry, no proposal to release funds or formulate schemes was sent to her for approval. In fact, all schemes, approval and execution of NRHM projects were handled by two bodies of the State Health Society (SHS): an executive committee headed by a principal secretary and a governing body headed by the chief secretary.BSP further claimed that the government of India reviewed performance of the implementation every three months before releasing funds for continuation of the programme. The funds were directly given to the society. So, nowhere was the state government involved in NRHM's implementation. Hence, the chief minister neither gave approval to any NRHM proposal nor was her consent legally required.
But according to rules, the State Health Mission (the umbrella body of NRHM committees and societies, including SHS) is headed by the chief minister of the state. So, it is not possible that Mayawati was unware of NRHM activities.
Sources also pointed at the May 5, 2010 decision to bifurcate the health and family welfare ministries and appoint two chief medical officers in each district, one for health and the other for family welfare. This was a policy decision, hence it could not have been taken without the consent of the then chief minister. In July 2010, the union health and family welfare ministry wrote to the state government, objecting to the bifurcation of health and family welfare ministry, but the Maya government ignored this.
Sources said, both Babu Singh Kushwaha and Pradeep Shukla told CBI that they were only following orders which came from the higher authorities. Kushwaha was family welfare minister and Pradeep Shukla was principal secretary health and family welfare and mission director of NRHM. Both have been arrested by the CBI.However, BSP's press release said that as soon as Mayawati came to know about anomalies in NRHM, she sacked Kushwaha from the post of minister and later ordered CBI inquiry and CAG audit. But Ahmed Hasan, health minister in the SP government, said, "Mayawati and the cabinet secretary are behind the NRHM scam, the others did only what they were asked to do."