Point of Sale machine installation at Regional Cancer Centre raises eyebrows

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Serious allegations have been levelled in connection with the installation of Point of Sale (POS) swiping machines at the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Thiruvananthapuram. In a memorandum to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, additional secretary and senior administrative officer of RCC C. Ravi alleged that there were irregularities in installing the POS machines. After the demonetisation of 1000 and 500 rupee notes, the finance controller of the institute installed POS machines of a private bank while the RCC had accounts with nationalised banks SBT and SBI.

The petition alleged that an account was opened by the officer in the main branch instead of bank’s medical college branch. Moreover, the officer had also availed a loan worth lakhs of rupees from the said bank allegedly in favour of installing these machines. He said the POS machines were deliberately installed in places where the cash collection was high. On the other hand the POS machines of nationalised banks were installed in places where cash flow was less.

Meanwhile, RCC finance controller Mr Sanjeev denied the allegations levelled in the petition. He said the allegations were baseless and being raised with some ulterior motive. After demonetisation decision, the institute wanted to provide cashless facilities to patients and their attenders. This was also done to lessen the problems associated with shortage of cash. He said at that time many banks came forward to install the POS machines. But they were demanding service charges which would lead to imposition of additional financial burden on the institute and the patients.

It was during this time that one of the private banks decided to install POS without levying service charges. Their offer was accepted and two POS machines were installed, one at the cash counter and another in pharmacy. After two three days SBT also came with a similar offer to install POS and they were also permitted. He said the installation of POS machine had nothing to do with the housing loan that he had taken from the private bank. The finance controller said that he had submitted the loan application before the installation of POS machines.