Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Thursday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flagging “inordinately delayed” hospital projects in the national capital, alleging that the intention of the government has been only to create “publicity-supported hype" in public domain. The LG said that not only the construction of a new hospital at Siraspur was running late but 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, works for which started way back in 2012-13, full completion is yet to be achieved despite 10 years having passed. It is unfortunate that works 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, as per a PTI report.
In his letter, the LG also noted that had the beds been added in 17 hospitals on time and the new hospital constructed, it would have resulted in about 12,500 additional beds for the people of Delhi.
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"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 Pandemic," he said, the report added.
Emphasising “importance of execution over announcements”, Saxena said it is starkly evident that currently 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 created not getting fructified," he added.
Citing media reports, the LG said, "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.
Referring to the media outreach by the Kejriwal government, the Lt Governor said that it gave an impression about public health infrastructure that emerges as 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.
There was no immediate reaction from the Aam Aadmi Party-led city government, the report stated.