Following the report of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Uttar Pradesh government suspended 20 senior doctors for their involvement in the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission scam.

The suspended doctors include 11 female health officials and nine male employees posted in different segments of the government hospitals, whose names had cropped up in the ongoing CBI investigation into the scam of Rs. 10,000 crore from the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) funds.

"The government has suspended 20 doctors, including those with additional chief medical officer's rank, whose names were given by the CBI during inquiry into NRHM scam," Health Minister Ahmad Hasan told the reporters.

According to the reports, two other doctors have already been suspended. "Former CMO of Lucknow, AK Shukla, and a doctor have already been suspended," Hasan said.

The Health Minister told Mail Today that, "We are convinced with the evidence given by the CBI. We decided to suspend these doctors who were posted in the state government hospitals as health officers or superintendents."

"Our intention is to ensure that the investigation of the CBI reaches a conclusion soon," he added.

He said that the action government took was "swift and stern." The government is expected to sanction the doctors' prosecution next week. Also, a CBI meeting is likely to be held on Tuesday before the proceedings begin.

Meanwhile, sources told the daily that CBI might conduct enquiries once again in all 72 districts.

"On the basis of documents collected so far, we have decided to once again conduct inquires in all 72 districts of the state which existed in 2009," India Today quoted an unnamed officer as saying.

"The time our focus would be on the engineers who were involved in the construction works," the officer told the magazine.