BENGALURU: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Karnataka has claimed that the newly inaugurated Namma Clinics in Bengaluru are nothing but political campaign centres displaying Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) banners. The clinics are not facilitated to provide proper medical facilities, they added.
AAP state president Prithvi Reddy said, “Namma Clinics started by the BJP are nothing but propaganda centres which are only playing with the feelings of patients in the city, and not providing proper medical facilities to them.”
During a press conference on Wednesday, Reddy said post the inaugural in Bengaluru, their team visited several clinics to check their working conditions. They only found banners of BJP leaders, not a fully equipped clinic.
He also compared Karnataka’s Namma Clinics with the Mohalla Clinics set up in Delhi. Reddy said around 500 clinics were opened in the capital city, while Karnataka is a much bigger state but the government has planned to launch only 438 clinics. He said the number is too small to cater to the state’s population.
The funds allocated for running a single clinic are also meagre, he said. The Aam Aadmi clinic running in Bengaluru requires Rs 8-10 lakh a month, so the allocated Rs 36 lakh to run one Namma Clinic for the entire year is very less, Reddy explained. The funds will not suffice to provide free medical treatment, as promised by the government, he added.
The party suggested a proper three-tiered medical system be put in place to provide better healthcare facilities to people. In case a patient at a Namma Clinic requires further treatment, the medical centre at the next level is not equipped for it, Reddy said.