Delhi LG V K Saxena on Thursday wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over "inordinately delayed" hospital projects in the city, alleging that the intention of the government has been only to create "publicity-supported hype" in public domain.

There was no immediate reaction from the Aam Aadmi Party-led city government.

In his letter, Saxena said not only the construction work of the new hospital at Siraspur was running a year behind schedule, addition of beds in existing hospitals like Lok Nayak, Guru Gobind Singh, Dr BS Ambedkar, Rao Tula Ram and Aruna Asaf Ali was also delayed by more than three years.

"In the case of ambitious Indira Gandhi Hospital, works for which started way back in 2012-13, full completion is yet to be achieved despite 10 years having passed. It is unfortunate that works at the existing Bhagwan Mahavir, Aruna Asaf Ali and Deep Chand Bandhu hospitals, which were started in 2019 and were slated to be completed by 2020, remain held up with no fixed dates of completion even after three years," the letter said.

The Lieutenant Governor noted that the augmentation of beds in 17 hospitals and construction of one new hospital on time would have resulted in about 12,500 additional beds for the people of Delhi.

"The projects for many of these hospitals, announced with much fanfare way back in 2014 and 2019, with projected completion dates ranging from 2017 to 2020, if completed on time, would have come to the rescue of thousands of Delhi residents, who suffered on account of non-availability of beds during the COVID Pandemic," he said.

Highlighting the "importance of execution over announcements", Saxena said it is starkly evident in the present case that the "intention of the government has been nothing but creation of publicity-supported hype in public domain". "Rampant inaction on ground leads to the hype so created not getting fructified," he added.

The LG cited media reports on the "inordinately delayed hospital projects, that are running late and behind schedule by years against their stipulated time of completion".

"It is indeed a matter of grave concern for Delhi - also the National Capital of India - where even as population grows exponentially, something as basic as addition of beds and blocks to even existing hospitals is lagging behind for unfathomable reasons," the letter read.

The Lt Governor noted that going by "the media outreach undertaken by the GNCTD, the picture about public health infrastructure that emerges is one of robustness".

"I am constrained to say that the situation on ground is completely to the contrary. Not a single new hospital has come up and even in those, I would like to repeat, where incremental additions in terms of beds and buildings were announced, time and cost overruns running into years and hundreds of crores, seems to have become the norm of the day," he said.

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