Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday wrote to Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena seeking renewal of the contract of agencies providing different diagnostic tests at Delhi government hospitals and Mohalla Clinics.
The Delhi government provides medical tests free of cost at these facilities to the public.
“Contract for lab services in Delhi government hospitals and Mohalla Clinics ends on December 31, 2022. New contract needs to be signed immediately to enable new service provider to start working from January 1. It will cause huge inconvenience to the people if there is a gap,” he said in the letter.
Mr. Sisodia said the Delhi government had completed all formalities for awarding the new contract. “The file was sent to you on 12-12-2022 to decide whether you would like to differ from the decision of the government and refer the matter to the President under proviso to Article 239AA(4). I would urge you to kindly decide the matter soon so that the new service provider could start the work.”
The letter comes a day after the Deputy CM’s earlier letter to the L-G, accusing the latter of bypassing the elected government and its Cabinet and urging him to take “corrective” steps.
Meanwhile, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Harish Khurana said that Mr. Sisodia’s latest letter is an attempt to divert attention from the condemnation of his previous letter.
“We are not in the government, so we have not seen the file, but we know that the process has not been followed even in the file of health tests in Mohalla Clinics sent by the Kejriwal government to the Lieutenant-Governor. The labs to whom work has been given has been given without following a transparent process,” he said.
