After conducting a surprise inspection of a mohalla clinic on Thursday, Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta alleged mismanagement of the health centre.
The mohalla clinic is located in the Geeta Colony area of Krishna Nagar.
Gupta claimed that the mohalla clinics that were established to provide primary healthcare services have fallen prey to corruption depriving the citizens of the intended benefits. He alleged that the clinics are not meeting the objectives for which they were created, and hence have proved a flop show.
He said neither medicines nor doctors are available at these clinics. Even essential equipment for conducting tests is conspicuous by their absence at the health centres. The BJP leader said several patients visiting the clinic told him that these health centres are merely for show and fail to provide any facilities to them. They said they were being referred to bigger government hospitals by the clinics as they neither have medicines, doctors nor the required infrastructure.
Gupta also alleged registrations of fake patients are shown at these mohalla clinics every month leading to a misappropriation of lakhs of rupees.
Earlier this year, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) conducted an investigation into graft complaints related to mohalla clinics revealing that between February and December of 2023, a total of 2.2 million tests were conducted in these clinics. These tests were outsourced to a private agency, and among them, 65,000 tests were found to be fake. This implies that 65,000 ‘ghost patients’ were registered, allowing for the misappropriation of crores of rupees, he added.
The BJP leader also claimed that several mohalla clinics have even closed down due to a lack of facilities. He highlighted that the salaries of the doctors and staff appointed for these clinics are significantly higher than the contractual doctors and other staff. A note from the health secretary to the health minister confirmed this and recommended that the permanent doctors’ salaries should be consolidated rather than being based on the number of patients treated, he added.
The BJP leader told the Delhi government that people are now aware of the truth behind the false claims made about these clinics and the corruption worth crores of rupees. Hence, the public is eager to vote out the AAP.