In the midst of the chest beating politics, rush to embrace Bhagat Singh and the Delhi High Court refusing to interfere into the issue of governance of Delhi, the city’s basic services have taken a further beating. While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has often hawked achievements in the health sector, the fact is that there isn’t much to show other than the tin pots called Mohallah Clinics.
In a heart-wrenching incident in Delhi, a 46-year-old cancer patient passed away after multiple hospitals refused to admit him. Puneet Sharma along with his wife and their children, travelled from Uttarakhand’s Kashipur to avail treatment for his advanced tongue cancer. However, as he and his family went to nine hospitals to treatment but were denied admission. Sharma’s cancerspread to other organs.
The crux of the problem was that the cancer speciality hospital, where Sharma was referred to, had a non-functional intensive care unit. On March 16, Puneet was admitted to the Delhi State Cancer Institute (DSCI). However, on March 28, DSCI referred him to either AIIMS or GB Pant Hospital because of the unavailability of intensive care facilities at the institute.
From here their ordeal started. According to reports, the family went to AIIMS on March 29 and was denied admission allegedly without any medical examination. They went to several other hospitals both under the Central and the state government, even sought police intervention but to no avail. They returned to the DSCI where the poor man passed away.
A few days later came the news that an eight-year-old boy with a broken arm was turned away on Monday by two state-run hospitals in east Delhi — Dr Hedgewar Aarogya Sansthan and Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, a dedicated paediatric facility, both run by the Delhi government. While one hospital claimed it did not have cotton, the other said it had no orthopaedic doctor at the time to treat the boy.
In his hour of crucifixion and likely redemption, it’s time for Arvind Kejriwal to retrospect about the quality of service he has provided to the citizens of the national Capital. Super speciality hospitals like Delhi State Cancer Institute (DSCI), Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality hospital among several others were built during the time of Sheila Dikshit, who preceded Kejriwal and was chief minister for 15 years. In addition to building new hospitals, the existing ones like GB Pant, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Hedgewar and several others were upgraded to meet the demands of the people’s health.
Kejriwal on the other hand has provided what can best be called “governance for optics”. The hospitals which were built by his predecessor with the idea of creating centres of excellence in the field of health care are today tottering to fall in reputation in the absence of commodities and service providers.
While we have the instance of Dikshit’s 15 years, of which six years was under the rule of BJP at the Centre, where she managed to overcome the limitations of restricted powers to still create a citizen-centric model of good governance. Today, there are at least 20 cases filed by the Delhi government or its corollaries in the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court that has made the Lieutenant Governor a party.
Only time would say whether these cases are just a struggle for power or genuine grievance of the elected government, which has since day one tried to overstep the constitutional provisions. In their defence, Kejriwal and his ministers say that bureaucrats don’t listen to the ministers, leaving the state govt no option but to go to court. There is more to it than this being just the plain truth.
In the meantime these issues would remain on the back burner as the drama of crucification and redemption continues to unfold.
Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice