Mohalla Clinics docs not paid salaries for three months: BJP

New Delhi: Delhi Pradesh BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva and the Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri have alleged that the entire system of Mohalla Clinics, which the Aam Aadmi Party described as world-class, has collapsed.

The doctors and other staff of Mohalla Clinics have not been paid after August. For the last two months, all tests have been discontinued in these clinics and there is an acute shortage of medicines. More than 70 of Delhi's 520 Mohalla Clinics have closed and the rest are on the verge of closure. Addressing a joint press conference, the BJP leaders said that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has played another fraud on the people of Delhi.

He has announced that now 450 tests will be done free of cost in Mohalla Clinics and government hospitals of Delhi, whereas the truth is that the 212 tests which are said to be free in the clinics have been stopped for the last two months. The reason is that for the last two months the labs which were given the contracts for the tests have refused to do them because of non-payment. The Chief Minister is misleading the public by saying that the tests are being done free of cost.

The BJP leaders said that doctors and other staff working in the Mohalla Clinics have not been paid salaries after August. Not only the salary, the bills for the rest of the expenses incurred in these clinics were also not reimbursed to these doctors. He said it does not happen in any government department that the employee pays office expenses from his own pocket, but in Mohalla Clinics, the doctors spend Rs 2000 for cleaning, Rs 700 for Wi-Fi, Rs 1000 for drinking water, stationery, and other office expenses per month from their own pocket and the government pays them later.

The shocking thing is that the doctors are not being paid their salary, but are incurring this expenditure and their bills are pending for the last seven months. In addition, the doctors also bought tabs worth Rs 15,000 from their own pocket and routers worth Rs 2,500 for Wi-Fi in Mohalla Clinics, but these bills were also not paid. Now the doctors are facing a severe financial crisis.

They said that there is an acute shortage of medicines in the clinics and due to the non-availability of tests and medicines, patients are having arguments with doctors every day. The Mohalla Clinics have become a cruel joke on the people of Delhi. Hundreds of crores of rupees have been wasted on these clinics and they are opened only for the false propaganda of the AAP government.