LG writes to CM Kejriwal

New Delhi: Delhi LG V K Saxena on Thursday wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over "inordinately delayed" hospital projects in the city, alleging that the intention of the government has been only to create "publicity-supported hype" in public domain.

There was no immediate reaction from the Aam Aadmi Party-led city government. In his letter, Saxena said not only the construction work of the new hospital at Siraspur was running a year behind schedule, 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 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. The Lieutenant Governor noted that the augmentation of beds in 17 hospitals and construction of one new hospital on time would have resulted in about 12,500 additional beds for the people of Delhi.

"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.