With the Gujarat assembly elections approaching closer, Gujarat AAP chief Gopal Italia made an outrageous claim about the Delhi government’s focus on strengthening the healthcare infrastructure in the national capital.
Speaking to journalist Sushant Sinha, Italia claimed that the Delhi government had built a hospital in every area of the city, drawing peals of laughter from the journalist and fellow co-panellist and BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla.
Gujarat AAP chief Gopal Italia says Delhi govt has built a new district hospital in every area of Delhi!
— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) September 14, 2022
Gujarat adhyaksh Gopal Italia “har area me shaandar naye district hospital banaye hai” …
Please Youtube pe sabhi naye district hospitals ka video daal do @ArvindKejriwal pic.twitter.com/26YQ2rMSkN
“The AAP government in Delhi has built magnificent hospitals in every area of the district,” said Italia during his interaction with Sinha.
The far-fetched claim came weeks after an RTI response that exposed promises made by AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who had assured of building seven hospitals in Delhi in a matter of 6 months.
RTI reveals no hospitals built in Delhi, Kejriwal had promised of building 7 in 6 months
On August 2, Twitter user Amit Kumar shared a reply to the RTI application that he had filed with the Health Department of the AAP-led Delhi government to find out how many hospitals the Delhi government has built between July 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022. The RTI was filed to see if the promise Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal had made about constructing seven hospitals in October last year was fulfilled or not.
Amit had asked four questions in his RTI application. The first question was about the new hospitals constructed by AAP Government in Delhi between July 1, 2021, to July 2, 2022. In the reply, the Public Information Officer of the Directorate General of Health Services said that no hospitals were constructed in Delhi from July 1, 2021, to July 1, 2022, by the Delhi Government.
In October 2021, CM Kejriwal at an event after laying the foundation stone of a government hospital that was supposed to be built in Shalimar Bagh said that the government of Delhi was going to build seven new hospitals with a total capacity of 6800 beds. Those hospitals were supposed to be completed in six months.
A Times Now report from February 2022 suggested that the work was delayed and the hospitals were supposed to be completed by mid-2022. The report said that the first hospital would be completed by June and the rest six by September. We could not find any reports of a hospital being inaugurated by the Delhi government in June.
