The incumbent AAP government of Delhi has used its health care and infrastructure initiatives as its major electoral campaign planks. Its 2015 Assembly election manifesto promised to increase total bed strength in Delhi hospitals to 40,000 and had even said that the strength would be doubled in the first two years.
In the same year, AAP supremo and Delhi CM Kejriwal claimed that in the last four-and-a-half years, his government has built 23 flyovers. However, the reality seems far from what the AAP government in Delhi has advertised over the years.
RTI pleas filed by one Tejpal Singh revealed that contrary to the tall claims made by the incumbent AAP government, no hospital had been commissioned, nor had any flyovers been constructed in Delhi between the years 2015 to 2019. The RTI pleas were filed in 2019 to seek information about the health care and infrastructure initiatives taken up by the Delhi government in the last 5 years.
Akshay Lakra, the president of Delhi’s National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress party tweeted the copy of the RTI replies dated 3rd July 2019.
RTI से खुलासा हुआ था कि 1 अप्रैल 2015 से लेकर 31 मार्च 2019 के बीच दिल्ली में @AamAadmiParty की सरकार ने ना ही किसी हॉस्पिटल को अनुदान दिया था और न ही किसी नए फ्लाईओवर का निर्माण करवाया था।
— Akshay Lakra (@akshaylakra17) April 2, 2021
बस झूठे विज्ञापन दे देकर जनता को मूर्ख बना लिया, और जनता भी इसकी बातों में आ गयी। pic.twitter.com/DJyVmSLhfh
The first reply from the Directorate of Health Services, Delhi confirmed that “as per information available in Hospital cell of DGHS, it is informed that No new hospital has been commissioned under Delhi government, during the period from April 2015 to 31st March 2019.
Interestingly, Aam Aadmi Party’s 2015 Assembly election manifesto promised to increase total bed strength in Delhi hospitals to 40,000 and had even said that the strength would be doubled in the first two years. In the 2019-20 budget, the Delhi government had allocated Rs 7,485 crore (about 14% of the budget) to medical and public health.
However, we had also reported, how actually, the Arvind Kejriwal government had added only 394 new beds in government hospitals between 2014-2015 and 2017-2018.
Similar has been the fate of the ambitious Mohalla Clinics. AAP had promised 1,000 Mohalla Clinics, against which only 189 were opened as per a report in January 2019. AAP had then blamed the Narendra Modi led BJP government in the Centre for the delay.
Similarly, the second copy of RTI by the Public Works Department, Delhi, revealed that the department has not undertaken any flyover construction work in the national capital between April 1, 2015 to 31st March, 2019.
Interestingly, on July 16, 2019, when Arvind Kejriwal had inaugurated the 2.85 km signal-free new RTR Flyover, he boasted that under his leadership the AAP government in Delhi had built 23 flyovers in the last 4 and a half years as compared to the 70 flyovers built by the Sheila Dikshit government in 15 years.