43 AAP MLAs landed at the Raj Niwas Wednesday, the L-G called it a siege. Tashi Tobgyal
The complaint which triggered the standoff over mohalla clinics between the AAP and the Lieutenant Governor was first made by Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken in September 2016. The allegations ranged from flouting of norms to ensure “illegal monetary gain to AAP” to “inflated rents”.
On July 2015, when Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had inaugurated the first-ever such clinic at Peeragarhi, he said that he initially found the idea of a clinic being built at a cost of Rs 20 lakh to be “unbelievable”. He announced that Delhi would soon have 1,000 such clinics. Now, two years later, the only functioning ones are the 110 mohalla clinics set up initially with the approval of former L-G Najeeb Jung. The deadline for more clinics was shifted twice — first to the end of 2016, then to March 2017.
As far as the Congress is concerned, the issue over the clinics has more to do with the lack of “transparency” in the systems than political reasons. “It’s not just a scam, but a flawed policy. Right now, they (AAP) can say the new mohalla clinics will be built by the PWD… so issues of rent don’t come into play. But the policy itself is flawed. Why not augment the existing healthcare centres which are in bad shape? Also, how can a primary healthcare initiative run only for four hours?… With the amount of money wasted, they could easily hire doctors for longer periods of time,” Maken said.
In his complaint to the L-G, Maken maintained that the government had “blatantly violated the CVC guidelines while setting up mohalla clinics at multiple locations owned by members and office-bearers of AAP”. He further alleged that “extended undue and illegal consideration” was given to AAP members “favouring them” and “permitting” the construction of clinics in “dilapidated and unhygienic” premises — the locations of which were “away from public access and therefore… unsuitable for public health facilities”.
He added that the government “bypassed the tender process” and “shunned the obligation to ascertain the market rate while renting multiple premises in Delhi”. The intention, he argued to the L-G while citing examples, “was to convey illegal monetary gain to the… ruling party”. The complaint, Congress leaders explained, was based on a survey of all clinics in Delhi. It found a number of clinics operating with “inflated rent”, which established “that the government machinery and funds” had been misused to “benefit private individuals associated with AAP”.
The L-G’s office — while noting that it had received complaints between September and December 2016 pertaining to “conceptualisation and implementation” of the clinics — pointed to issues related to “method to select premises”, inflated rent, “premises of party workers rented”, “problems related to location of clinics, hours that the clinics remain open” and “accounting” payments.
The government maintained that it received the file from the L-G’s office, outlining these complaints, on Wednesday, despite the L-G’s claim that it was sent to Kejriwal’s office on July 5. Dismissing the allegations, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said he received the “alleged gist of complaints/irregularities in the setting up of mohalla clinics” and urged the L-G to send him “specific instances” on the basis of which “these allegations have been made”, so that “appropriate action can be taken”. He added, “A few random instances cannot be the reason for stalling establishment of all mohalla clinics.”
