During the early stages of planning the Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics project in 2015, the departments of the Delhi government had flagged the lack of land for the facilities as a potential hurdle, and questioned the rationale of setting 1,000 clinics as the target, according to documents accessed by The Hindu.
With the project currently stalled due to unavailability of land, the observations mentioned in the November 2015 Cabinet note finds relevance today.
In March 2015, soon after forming the government, Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia had in the budget for 2015-16 set aside ₹125 crore for 500 mohalla clinics to be set up that financial year. Then, in its annual plan for 2015-16, the Planning Department also set the target at 500 clinics.
‘Need only 500 clinics’
However, by November that year the Health Department had proposed setting up 1,000 mohalla clinics.
As per the Cabinet note, the Planning Department questioned the number, saying that as per the Delhi Masterplan-2021 there was a need for one primary health centre (PHC) for 10,000 people.
Taking 1.8 crore as the city’s population, 1,800 PHCs are required as per the masterplan. Since there are already 1,389 PHCs, or dispensaries, of the Delhi government, Centre and local bodies combined, only 500 new mohalla clinics are needed, the Planning Department had argued.
The Planning Department then asked the Health Department to identify sites for the 1,000 mohalla clinics, to which the Health Department replied that 1,018 sites had been identified by MLAs.
The Planning Department also observed that the fee for transfer of land had not been factored in, to which the Health Department said that since the structures were temporary they could be re-located as per the wishes of the land-owning agency.
All work has stopped
Despite the observations, the Cabinet gave its go-ahead to the project for construction of 1,000 clinics, and three contracts of 250 clinics each were allotted in March 2016.
According to notices issued on July 14 this year by the Public Works Department, the agency executing the project, three of the contracts have been cancelled due to lack of land. A total of 107 of the 1,000 clinics have been completed so far.
As per the notice, which is with The Hindu, work on the remaining clinics has come to a stop.