On Thursday (4th January), Delhi BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi slammed the ruling AAP government after the LG called for a CBI probe into the fake lab tests at the Aam Aadmi Mohalla clinics in Delhi. The leader said that the AAP was already committing fraud in the liquor policy matter and now it was additionally executing fraud in medicine.
Trivedi based its allegations on the vigilance report published on 23rd December last year. The report exposed the government hospitals in Delhi using inappropriate medicines causing harm to the health of the patients. Delhi Governor V K Saxena also took cognizance of the event and ordered a probe into the matter.
The investigation, based on officials, was required when it was discovered that the doctors assigned to these seven mohalla clinics spread across the South-West, Shahdara, and North-East districts would not show up for duty and would instead record their presence on bio-metric systems using pre-recorded videos. While some doctors would reach the clinics well after others and yet record full attendance, others would skip work entirely.
A further probe of patient data on the orders of the LG exposed how thousands of lab tests were done on ghost patients. These patients were registered using fake or repeated phone numbers, and expensive lab tests were prescribed which are done by two private laboratories in Delhi. In the data taken for just 3 months for 7 mohalla clinics, over 23,000 fake patients with fake phone numbers were detected.
Sudhanshu Trivedi held a press meeting on Thursday (4th January) and termed the AAP Mohalla clinics as ‘fake’. The leader said that the vigilance report highlighted the usage of fake medicines in the government clinics in Delhi. He also said that the AAP should showcase the CCTV footage of such clinics to prove themselves innocent, and to show that there are no ghost patients at the clinic.
“Earlier, the AAP said that around 500 patients daily visited the AAP Moholla clinics. The official timing of the clinics is 9 am to 1 pm. How is it possible that the doctors at the clinic can attend to so many patients in just 4 hours daily? Now it has come to the fore that the terminological testing facility that was used by the Moholla clinics is also fake. They did scam in liquor policy case and not they are doing scam in medicines and medicals testings,” Trivedi said.
#WATCH | On alleged 'fake lab tests' in AAP Mohalla clinics in Delhi, BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi says, "Are there CCTVs in Mohalla clinics? If there was a CCTV, then there must be footage of over 500 patients visiting the Mohalla Clinic in a day." pic.twitter.com/ETbeAHYgat
— ANI (@ANI) January 4, 2024
Earlier, BJP’s Manoj Tiwari and Virendra Sachdeva held a press conference on this matter. The duo alleged that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was a trader of fake medicines. At the same time, Virendra Sachdeva had said that there is enough evidence against the corruption of AAP leaders. “This party is hungry for money,” the duo had said.
This comes amid the times when Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal skipped the Enforcement Directorate’s summons for the 3rd time. ED plans to question the AAP supremo in the Delhi liquor scam, however, the Delhi CM has been evading the authorities.
Sometimes, Kejriwal used the excuse of assembly elections, sometimes of Vipassana, and now of upcoming Rajya Sabha elections and Republic Day. While making time for all these things, Arvind Kejriwal has failed to make time for ED questioning.
Interestingly, Kejriwal doesn’t seem to have time for ED, but he has enough time for the media. On Thursday, 4th January, Arvind Kejriwal issued a statement saying, “The truth is that there was no corruption. BJP wants to arrest me. My biggest asset is my honesty & they want to dent it. My lawyers have told me that summons sent to me are illegal.”
Arvind Kejriwal further said, “BJP’s aim is not to probe me, but not to let me campaign for Lok Sabha elections. They want to call me on the pretext of investigation and then arrest me.”
Notably, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party has 1 Lok Sabha MP and he says BJP is pulling out all the stops to stop this 1 MP party from campaigning for Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
The liquor policy for 2021-22 was put into effect by the Delhi administration on 17th November 2021, however, it was cancelled at the end of September 2022 due to accusations of corruption. According to the agencies, the new regulation led to monopolization and gave economic advantages to people who weren’t eligible for liquor licenses.
Interestingly, the Kejriwal government scrapped the policy the moment an investigation started into the policy and its implementation.
