The Lieutenant Governor noted that the augmentation of beds in 17 hospitals and construction of one new hospital on time would have resulted in about 12,500 additional beds for the people of Delhi
Arvind Kejriwal. File Pic
Delhi LG V K Saxena on Thursday wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over "inordinately delayed" hospital projects in the city, alleging that the intention of the government has been only to create "publicity-supported hype" in public domain.
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Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, however, wrote to the chief minister, saying the LG's allegations that these hospitals were started much before COVID-19 are "factually incorrect" and "misleading". He also shared the stipulated deadlines for the various projects in the letter.
In his letter, Saxena also pointed out the advertisement costs of the AAP dispensation and the previous Sheila Dikshit government, and said her regime was able to achieve much more in terms of health infrastructure with their ad spend being a meagre Rs 87.5 crore as against Rs 1,867.44 crore spent by the Kejriwal government.
The Lieutenant Governor said not only the construction work of the new hospital at Siraspur was running a year behind schedule, addition of beds in existing hospitals like Lok Nayak, Guru Gobind Singh, Dr BS Ambedkar, Rao Tula Ram and Aruna Asaf Ali, was also delayed by more than three years.
"In the case of the ambitious Indira Gandhi Hospital, work for which started way back in 2012-13, full completion is yet to be achieved despite 10 years having passed. It is unfortunate that the work at the existing Bhagwan Mahavir, Aruna Asaf Ali and Deep Chand Bandhu hospitals, which were started in 2019 and were slated to be completed by 2020, remain held up with no fixed dates of completion even after three years," the letter said.
The Lieutenant Governor noted that the augmentation of beds in 17 hospitals and construction of one new hospital on time would have resulted in about 12,500 additional beds for the people of Delhi.
"The projects for many of these hospitals, announced with much fanfare way back in 2014 and 2019, with projected completion dates ranging from 2017 to 2020, if completed on time would have come to the rescue of thousands of Delhi residents who suffered on account of non-availability of beds during the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.
Highlighting the "importance of execution over announcements", Saxena said it is starkly evident in the present case that the "intention of the government has been nothing but creation of publicity-supported hype in public domain". Rampant inaction on ground leads to the hype so created not getting fructified, he added. He also cited media reports on the "inordinately delayed hospital projects, that are running late and behind schedule by years against their stipulated time of completion".
"It is indeed a matter of grave concern for Delhi -- also the National Capital of India -- where even as population grows exponentially, something as basic as addition of beds and blocks to even existing hospitals is lagging behind for unfathomable reasons," the letter read.
The Lt Governor noted that going by "the media outreach undertaken by the GNCTD, the picture about public health infrastructure that emerges is one of robustness".
"I am constrained to say that the situation on ground is completely to the contrary. Not a single new hospital has come up and even in those, I would like to repeat, where incremental additions in terms of beds and buildings were announced, time and cost overruns running into years and hundreds of crores, seems to have become the norm of the day," he said.
Stressing that governments are run on well-established principles of governance and public delivery rather than propaganda posturings, he said it was "appalling" that the reasons for this almost "criminal delay" in execution of hospital projects, as reported by the media has been lack of funds amounting to Rs 600 crore.
"I fail to understand as to how a government that spent Rs 1,867.44 crore in advertising at DAVP rates, during the corresponding period of last five years, that is, between 2019 to 2023 at an average of Rs 31.12 crore/month or Rs 1.12 crore/day, and one that pays Rs 30 lakh per month (Rs1 Lakh per day) to an agency for issuing press releases alone, can hide behind the fig leaf alibi of not completing health and hospital projects due to paucity of just Rs 600 crore.
"I am also informed that the above mentioned amount of Rs 1,867.44 crore may not include the advertisements issued by boards/corporations/universities/autonomous bodies of GNCTD, at commercial rates," he said.
He pointed out that the Congress government's total ad spend during five years of 2009-10 to 2013-14, amounted to a meagre Rs 87.5 crore, that is, averaging at Rs 1.45 crore/month or Rs 4.80 lakh/day. Hours after the LG's letter, Bharadwaj wrote to Kejriwal and denied all the allegations.
"The allegation of LG that these hospitals were started much before COVID-19 are factually incorrect and misleading. The purpose of the communication appears to be devious in nature meant to malign the efforts of the elected government," he said.
Explaining about the construction plans, he said the original plan was to construct eight floors in the new hospitals. "However, after the precedence of permissions to AIIMS, the plan was upgraded to construct 10 floors," the minster said. Contrary to the Lt Governor's claims, the health minister said these projects were started during the year 2020 and they too had to bear the brunt of the COVID-19 situation.
"The very fact that these hospitals were envisaged as Covid hospitals proves that they were started after the pandemic had hit Delhi badly. Even if I believe the version of the LG that these projects have been delayed, I would like to know from him what powers do I have to take action against the erring officers," he said. The senior AAP leader called LG's letter a "desperate attempt to divert the media attention" and "avoid the questions being asked about the deteriorating law and order situation in the national capital".
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