Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Thursday dashed off a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flagging “inordinately delayed” hospital projects in the national Capital, alleging that the intention of the government has been only to create “publicity-supported hype” in public domain.

Sharing a list of 19 projects related to hospitals,  Saxena alleged that the AAP government’s claims about a revolution in the health sector are false.

Highlighting the “importance of execution over announcements”, Saxena in his letter said it is starkly evident in the present case that the “intention of the government has been nothing but creation of publicity-supported hype in public domain”. 

“Rampant inaction on ground leads to the hype so created not getting fructified,” he added.The LG further claimed that nothing big happened in the health sector despite big claims from the Delhi government. 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 elapsed. 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 LG asserted in his letter.

 The LG also 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.

The LG cited media reports on the “inordinately delayed hospital projects that are running late and behind schedule by years against their stipulated time of completion”.

“It is indeed a matter of grave concern for Delhi - also the National Capital of India - where even as population grows exponentially, something as basic as addition of beds and blocks to even existing hospitals is lagging behind for unfathomable reasons,” the letter read.The Lt Governor noted that going by “the media outreach undertaken by the GNCTD, the picture about public health infrastructure that emerges is one of robustness”.”I am constrained to say that the situation on ground is completely to the contrary.

Not a single new hospital has come up and even in those, I would like to repeat, where incremental additions in terms of beds and buildings were announced, time and cost overruns running into years and hundreds of crores, (of rupees) seems to have become the norm of the day,” he said.

“The performance of a Government or any entity is and should be determined by the actual work done by it on ground and not on the basis Text Box: 3of the Advertisements, Press Releases and Twitter posts that it issues. I am but, pained to say that Governments are run on well-established principles of governance and public delivery rather than propaganda posturings - something that seems to have become the norm as far as GNCTD is concerned.  What is even more appalling, is the fact that the reasons for this almost criminal delay in execution of hospital projects, as reported by the Media has been lack of funds amounting to Rs 600 crore,” Saxena said.

 “I fall to understand as to how a government that spent Rs.1,867.44 Cr., in advertising at DAVP rates during the corresponding period of last 05 years i.e. between 2019 to 2023 (including 02 years of severe Pandemic distress) at an average of Rs. 31.12 Cr. / month or Rs. 1.12 Cr. / day, and one that pays Rs.30 Lakh per month (Rs.1 Lakh per day) to an agency for issuing press releases alone, can hide behind the fig leaf alibi of not completing health and hospital projects due to paucity of just Rs.600 cr,” reads the letter.

The  Lt Governor further said that late Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was able to achieve much more in terms of creating hospital and other infrastructure during her tenure, even as their total ad spend during 05 years of 2009-10 to 2013-14, amounted to a meagre Rs. 87.5 Cr., an average at Rs.1.45 Cr. per month as against your expenditure of Rs. 1.12 Cr. / day on advertisements.