CM inaugurates first ‘aam aadmi polyclinic’ in Gandhi Nagar
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is likely to pass the budget for opening around 1,000 mohalla clinics across the city in its Cabinet meeting to be held on Tuesday.
While inaugurating the capital’s first “aam aadmi polyclinic” in east Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar on Monday, Mr Kejriwal said that the Delhi government is going to revive around 150 dispensaries, currently housed in “dilapidated buildings”, over the next few months where specialist care would be provided to reduce dependence on bigger hospitals.
“Tomorrow, we have our Cabinet meeting. In that meeting, we will most probably pass the budget to open 1,000 mohalla clinics. If the budget is passed then work will immediately start on building the clinics across Delhi and I hope that the work shall be completed in six-eight months,” added Mr Kejriwal.
Before the inauguration of the clinic, which was earlier a facility exclusively for women and maternity care, east MCD workers were seen expeditiously cleaning up the area, reeking of rotten waste.
Locals complained that most of the time garbage lies littered on streets and bylanes of the locality. “The MCD workers are busy sprinkling bleaching powder but they are absent most of the time,” said a local resident.
The chief minister also promised to relocate the garbage dump, located right opposite the polyclinic, after local MLA Anil Bajpai made a request to this effect on stage. “You look for suitable land and the relocation shall be done,” he said.
Although, Mukesh Kumar, an MCD official, claimed that around 12 trucks are deployed everyday for the purpose of carrying the waste to dumpyards.
Delhi health minister Satyender Jain, who was also present on the occasion, promised to provide all diagnostic and treatment specialities in varied areas such as childcare, dental, gynaecology that are available in the hospitals.
Speaking at the event, Mr Kejriwal said the facility, squeezed in the middle of a bustling vegetable market, was spruced up within a short duration of two months from a “state of ruin”.
The health model, that the government has drawn up, is comprised 1,000 mohalla clinics and 100-150 polyclinics around the city, which, Mr Kejriwal said, will take care of nearly 99 per cent of the diseases thus reducing the dependency on big hospitals such as Guru Tegh Bahadur.
