Delhi LG writes to CM over 'inordinately delayed' hospital projects

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 publicitysupported hype in public domainDelhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj however wrote to the chief minister saying the LGs allegations that these hospitals were started much before COVID19 are factually incorrect and misleading He also shared the stipulated deadlines for the various projects in the letterIn 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 875 crore as against Rs 186744 crore spent by the Kejriwal governmentThe 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 yearsIn the case of the ambitious Indira Gandhi Hospital work for which started way back in 201213 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 saidThe Lieutenant Governor noted that the augmentation of beds in 17 hospitals and construction of one new hospital on time would have resulted in about 12500 additional beds for the people of DelhiThe 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 nonavailability of beds during the COVID19 pandemic he saidHighlighting 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 publicitysupported 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 completionIt 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 readThe Lt Governor noted that going by the media outreach undertaken by the GNCTD the picture about public health infrastructure that emerges is one of robustnessI 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 saidStressing that governments are run on wellestablished 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 croreI fail to understand as to how a government that spent Rs 186744 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 3112 croremonth or Rs 112 croreday 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 croreI am also informed that the above mentioned amount of Rs 186744 crore may not include the advertisements issued by boardscorporationsuniversitiesautonomous bodies of GNCTD at commercial rates he saidHe pointed out that the Congress governments total ad spend during five years of 200910 to 201314 amounted to a meagre Rs 875 crore that is averaging at Rs 145 croremonth or Rs 480 lakhday Hours after the LGs letter Bharadwaj wrote to Kejriwal and denied all the allegationsThe allegation of LG that these hospitals were started much before COVID19 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 saidExplaining 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 Governors claims the health minister said these projects were started during the year 2020 and they too had to bear the brunt of the COVID19 situationThe 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 LGs 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 capitalThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without 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