The withdrawal of the writ petition filed in the Supreme Court by Health Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj regarding the ‘Farishtey Scheme’ against the Office of the Lt. Governor is an admission that all the claims that he made against the LG Office in his petition were baseless, false and done with an intent to malign the Office of the Lt. Governor, Raj Niwas said on Friday.
Making this assertion, officials said fearing that the AAP government’s lies will be exposed in the Supreme Court, Bhardwaj did not press for the petition on Thursday.
As per the affidavit submitted by the LG office, ‘the writ petition’, was unfounded aimed at maligning the Office of the Lt. Governor, stemmed from concealment of material facts and had been filed without any cause of action only to build up a narrative against the Office of the Lt. Governor.
The withdrawal of the writ petition by Bhardwaj, in the Supreme Court vindicates what the LG Office had said and proves that all along, Bhardwaj had been indulging in pointless and malicious blame game and was a ‘classic example of dragging politics into the Court’.
The claims made by Bhardwaj in his petition that LG Office had rendered his government incapable of implementing the ‘Farishtey Scheme’, have been belied and he has been exposed.
It vindicates the stand taken by the LG Office and the Secretary, Health, GNCTD that ‘Farishtey Scheme’ had never been made infructuous, as alleged by Bhardwaj.
The total number of beneficiaries under the scheme during FY 2022-2023, was 3698 and the same stood at 3604 till October in FY 2023-2024, when the writ petition was moved. Bhardwaj lied to the Court in his writ petition.
Also, contrary to claims made by Bhardwaj in his writ petition that payments were not being made under the scheme, a payment of Rs 4.85 crores during FY 2022-2023, and a payment of Rs 4.98 crores till February 12 in FY 2023-2024, were made to private hospitals under the scheme.
These figures prima facie neither indicate a “halt” in the ‘Farishtey Scheme’ nor do they support allegations of “non-payment” made by Bhardwaj, officials said.
The implementation of Farishtey or any other scheme of the Health Department was done by the Health Department itself, with financial allocations made by the Finance Department, both of which are transferred subjects totally under the control of respected Ministers and any failures thereof are the sole responsibility of the Ministers.
Moreover, Minister Health, Saurabh Bhardwaj is himself the Chairman of Delhi ArogyaKosh and it is him, who clears every file submitted directly by Director General of Health Services (DGHS), to him and the question of Secretary of the Health Department or the LG Office being anywhere in the picture does not arise.
Meanwhile, the AAP said that this is shameful, as the LG stooped to such lows that he did not even bother to respond to the letters of the Chief Minister of Delhi until he received notice from the Supreme Court.
“After the Supreme Court issued notice to the LG, the funds of Rs. 29 crore were immediately released to DAK (Health Department), and payments could be made to private hospitals, allowing the scheme to become operational,” the party said in a statement.
