Delhi LG Clears Healthcare for All Proposal: Claims Kejriwal
After the failure of Mohalla Clinics, this is another attempt of Kejriwal and his political outfit AAP to woo the Delhi voters before the upcoming Lok Sabha election for which AAP has already launched its campaign.
By Rakesh Raman
Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, claimed Tuesday that Delhi Lt. Governor (LG) Anil Baijal has approved the cabinet decision for providing quality healthcare for all residents of Delhi.
According to Kejriwal, LG had earlier turned down the cabinet decision with the suggestion that an income criteria should be applied for the persons availing the service particularly for expensive treatment.
While Kejriwal claims that LG has approved his plan, so far (at the time of filing this report) there is no explicit response from the LG office.
Amid increasing animosity between LG and the government headed by Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had recently released a compendium of fresh allegations against Baijal.
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In its 2017 year-end report, Kejriwal’s AAP complained that the LG enjoys all the powers in Delhi but he is not accountable for his failures. Kejriwal has repeatedly said that LG is not allowing his government to work. But now Kejriwal claims that LG has suddenly cleared his healthcare proposal.
It is claimed that more than 12,000 people availed the benefit of Delhi Government scheme of getting their surgeries done free of cost in the empaneled private medical institutions on being referred from Delhi Government hospitals, Mohalla and Polyclinics in the year 2017.
After the failure of Mohalla Clinics, this is another attempt of Kejriwal and his political outfit AAP to woo the Delhi voters before the upcoming Lok Sabha election for which AAP has already launched its campaign.
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Under the new healthcare scheme, the government is facilitating 52 surgeries free of cost at private hospitals in Delhi / NCR. There is no income limit for residents of Delhi who get treatment at one of the 24 specified government hospitals. Besides Aadhaar cards, patients can submit voter ID or driving licence as proof of Delhi address to avail the services.
According to Kejriwal, Delhi Government wants to ensure that people, irrespective of their economic status, get best health and education facilities. Kejriwal knows that along with healthcare, education is another potential area that can get him votes.
As this is a pure political calculation, AAP is making false claims about the quality of education in Delhi schools just to attract the students’ parents who are nothing but voters for Kejriwal.
Hon’ble @LtGovDelhi approves “Quality Health for all” scheme without income criteria. Thank u so much sir.
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 16, 2018
Since Kejriwal and his political clique do not have any expertise to properly utilize public funds for good governance, they are squandering public money on such deceptive free schemes to hoodwink the voters.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. Besides working at senior editorial positions with leading media companies, he was writing an exclusive edit-page tech business column (named Technophile) regularly for The Financial Express (a daily business newspaper of The Indian Express Group).
Earlier, he had been associated with the United Nations (UN) through United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development. He also runs a free school for deserving children under his NGO – RMN Foundation.
Photo courtesy: LG office
