LG office alleges lack of planning in new hospital projects; AAP blames LG and Services dept

New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) The tussle between the Lieutenant Governor's office and the AAP dispensation escalated on Thursday with the former claiming that construction of 24 hospitals was started without considering creation of 38,000 posts of doctors, paramedics and other staff needed to work there.

The ruling AAP said the LG office has "forgotten" that Services department is under the control of the lieutenant governor, who is responsible for creation of new sanctioned posts in any department, including the Delhi government hospitals.

Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena in a recent review meeting took "grave exception" to the fact that the 24 hospital projects, at various stages of "delayed" construction, had simply not taken into consideration the requirement of about 38,000 posts, Raj Niwas officials said.

"Even as the construction work began by the Health department and PWD, no attempt was made to even create these posts during the last 4-5 years, leave apart filling it up," said an official.

The "shocking facts of absolute lack of planning and financial mismanagement in the public health infrastructure projects came up during the review meeting by the LG", he said.

Civil construction work of the 24 hospital projects was started without any planning for the equipments, machinery or manpower for the same, the official said.

"The LG noted that this was a classic example of an ill-conceived and ill planned project, which amounted to criminal neglect," he added.

No budgetary provisions were made for machines and equipment for the hospitals, the officials claimed.

The situation is such that there is construction of shells of concrete with no equipments, beds, operation theatres, doctors, nurses and staff, in the name of hospitals, at a cost of Rs 8,000 crores, they said.

The project involved redevelopment of 13 existing hospitals, four new hospitals and re-engineering of seven existing hospitals as ICU facilities.

The 24 hospital projects were tendered during 2019-2021 at an estimated cost of Rs 3,906.70 crores. The projects were expected to be complete in six months to one year as mostly prefabricated material was to be used.

"However, not only have the projects been delayed, an additional Rs 3,800 crores will be required to complete them. This amounts to a cost overrun of almost 100 per cent," the officials claimed.

Further, an additional allocation of around Rs 5,000 crores will need to be made for furniture, medical equipments, machinery. once all the projects are complete, besides an operational cost of Rs 4800 crores per year, they said.

"The LG was surprised that all these costs were not factored in despite one after another budget presented by the government," they said.

The LG was surprised to note that even these costs were not factored in, even as the government kept presenting one budget after another over successive years.

The AAP said that everyone knew that since the year when these hospitals are under construction, each year the Cabinet approves fund for it.

"It is not a secret that these hospitals were under construction for a few years and it is entirely the work of LG and Services department under him, who have to create new posts of doctors, specialists, paramedics and then recruit them through UPSC and DSSSB," said the party.

The recruitment via the UPSC and DSSSB is beyond the domain of elected dispensation of Delhi government, it said.

It was further asserted by the AAP that Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj in a meeting on July 3, 2023, with the Health officers overseeing the construction of these hospitals, as well as other officers, including Health secretary, sensitised them to proactively work on creation of new posts and then filling it up through UPSC/ DSSSB, the AAP said.

"However, the Health Secretary and the Services department "miserably failed" to create even a single new sanctioned posts for upcoming hospitals," the AAP charged.

Further, Bharadwaj through several notes reminded the LG and the Health Secretary to ask the Services department for creating the sanctioned posts for the upcoming hospitals, including on June 25 and July 26 this year, added the AAP. PTI VIT AS AS