India News | Delhi Govt Trying to 'malign Image' of Civic Hospital Which Aided in Covid-19 Fight: Mayor
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. North Delhi Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh on Saturday alleged that the AAP-led government here was trying to "malign the image" of civic-run Rajan Babu TB Hospital, which aided in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, by highlighting a section of one of its buildings that is in a "depleted state".
New Delhi, Jan 1 (PTI) North Delhi Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh on Saturday alleged that the AAP-led government here was trying to "malign the image" of civic-run Rajan Babu TB Hospital, which aided in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, by highlighting a section of one of its buildings that is in a "depleted state".
The mayor of the BJP-led North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) said this in a press conference here hours after Delhi Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain said that the city government has ordered an inquiry for "vacation and sealing of the building".
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He said the action was taken after it emerged that the structure might collapse any time, as it is in a "dilapidated and hazardous" condition.
Mayor Singh called the Delhi government's move "politically-biased" and alleged that the minister had "bypassed" a lawful system by "directly passing the order of vacation and sealing" without asking for a report from either the hospital administration or the municipal commissioner.
"Two days ago, we witnessed a leader of Delhi's ruling party walking into Rajan Babu hospital, with cameras, and trying to malign the image of the hospital by highlighting a small section of one of its buildings which is in a depleted state and already declared dangerous," he said.
Thereafter, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader went on to do a press conference declaring the "entire hospital unfit for human occupation, which is a total lie," the mayor claimed.
The political slugfest over the condition of the civic facility comes ahead of the municipal polls due early this year.
AAP MLA Atishi Marlena had recently made a surprise visit to the civic-run hospital and her party had live-streamed it on social media to show that patients were being allegedly treated at the dilapidated block on the premises, even as the civic body has declared it "dangerous".
Later, Leader of Opposition in NDMC Vikas Goel, who accompanied Atishi on the visit, had filed a complaint at the Mukherjee Nagar police station.
Rajan Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis (RBIPMT), popularly known as TB hospital, is located in Kingsway Camp area in northwest Delhi. It's main building is a heritage structure that was constructed during the British era.
The dilapidated block, which was visited by Atishi, is situated separately in the campus, spread over more than 60 acres, said Jogi Ram Jain, chairman of the standing committee of NDMC.
The mayor said the hospital is a huge 700-bed facility providing specialised treatment in chest diseases, including tuberculosis, and claimed that it was this hospital which, during the second wave of Covid-19, "provided 100 oxygen beds as an emergency measure, when the Delhi government was failing in arranging oxygen beds".
"It is shocking that today, the Delhi Government is trying to malign the image of the hospital, which aided it barely a few months ago," Singh alleged.
The NDMC panel chief, earlier in the day had claimed that "only the facade and two wards" in the multi-storey block were in damaged state, and not the whole building as being alleged by the AAP.
Experts at IIT-Roorkee had been commissioned to assess the structural safety of this building of the hospital, he said, even as he alleged that AAP was playing politics over it due to upcoming civic polls.
The NDMC in October 2021 had declared the building's "verandah area unfit" and sought a report from IIT-Roorkee experts on the building's overall safety, which is "awaited", the civic body said in a statement later.
The mayor added that under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 2012, only the municipal bodies have the "power to survey and declare any building dangerous for human occupation", and in this case, the NDMC had "already passed a necessary order, declaring a portion of the building concerned, inhabitable".
Jain said Rajan Babu hospital is a big facility, and the covered verandah area of one of its buildings has been "declared unfit while 10 other wards are fully usable".
The NDMC panel chief on Saturday, when asked about the warning signages installed in front of the structure, said, "yes, board have been placed, but a generic term is used, whether a building is fully or partially damaged," and claimed that Atishi "blew things out of proportion".
Jain also said that the corporation is passing through financial crisis, due to which it has "not been able to immediately start repair and renovation" of the building concerned.
Leader of the House in NDMC Chhail Bihari Goswami, who also addressed reporters, alleged that Delhi's ruling party is "politically frustrated due to public outcry against new Excise Policy and failure in tackling both Covid and pollution crises in Delhi".
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor was present during the press conference.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)