Contrary to the claims of providing quality medical facilities by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC), nearly 97 per cent of the fund meant for purchasing ayurvedic, homoeopathic and yunani medicines has lapsed during the last year. According to officials, only Rs24 lakh could be utilised for the purpose out of the total monetary allocation of `8.5crore. The non-utilisation of money stormed the meeting of the Standing Committee on Thursday with the Opposition Congress blaming the officials and the BJP leadership of being negligent on sensitive matters like public health.
Providing health services to the residents is one of the primary responsibilities of the civic body. However, the corporation has failed in its duty. While they failed to procure basic requirements like medicine for the dispensaries, they are making plans to open a medical college. Nearly 97 per cent of the fund lapsed as the Health Department of the corporation could only procure medicine worth of Rs23.79 lakh during the whole financial year,” said Mukesh Goel, leader of Opposition in North Corporation. “While the dispensaries run without medicine for one year, the corporation spent around `6.5 crore on the salary of the doctors and other staff members,” Goel added.
The issue, however, had the officials on the receiving end. While they admitted laxity on their part for lapse of the fund, they said the mistake would not be repeated this year. “There was some confusion due to the trifurcation. Now we are changing the procedure of the procurement process. In fact, we have cleared files pertaining to it on Thursday itself. There will be no complaint regarding availability of medicines this year,” said Additional Commissioner Mayank Sharma.
While the dispensaries are running short of medicine, the number of doctors available in the dispensaries is also a worrying fact. “Atleast 21 posts of ayurvedic doctors are lying vacant. Out of 17 yunani dispensaries, seven do not have a single doctor. Similarly, 14 out of 25 posts for homeopathic doctors are vacant in the civic body,” Goel alleged.