Stating that the health infrastructure in Punjab was in a shambles, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said if his party formed the next government in the State, free and best treatment facilities would be available at government hospitals.
Mr. Kejriwal, who was on a two-day Punjab visit ahead of Assembly polls scheduled for early next year, said in Ludhiana: “If you go to a government hospital, primary health centre or a community health centre in Punjab, you will not get any treatment. No doctor is there, there are no medicines and even machines are not working. In compulsion, one has to go to a private hospital, which exorbitantly loots the people.”
“In Delhi too, when we took over seven years ago, the condition was very bad. But we changed the condition and will do it in Punjab also,” he said.
Promising that medicines, tests, treatment and surgeries will be free of cost, Mr. Kejriwal said: “We have done this in Delhi and will do it in Punjab too. In Delhi, one gets medicines or injections, free of cost at government hospitals.”
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Village clinics
Mr. Kejriwal announced that the people of Punjab will be issued a digital health card, which will comprise of all the details of the person concerned and his medical record. “ Pind (village) clinics will be opened in Punjab on the lines of Delhi’s mohalla (neighbourhood) clinics. Our mohalla clinics have become famous all around the world. On the same lines, we will open 16,000 ‘Pind Clinics’ in all villages, wards and cities of Punjab,” he said.
The AAP leader promised to revamp the infrastructure of the existing government hospitals as well as setting up of new government hospitals. He also announced a scheme for road accident cases similar to that in Delhi, in which victims are provided free treatment.
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‘Let down by Congress’
Hitting out at the Congress over the recent happenings in the state, Mr. Kejriwal said, “Punjab had formed the Congress government with great hopes. But today, they’ve made a mockery of it. A dirty fight for power is going on. All their leaders want to become CM. There’s so much infighting that the government has disappeared. On the other hand, there is the AAP, which is planning for development and progress of Punjab.”
On the party’s CM face in Punjab, Mr. Kejriwal said he would declare the Chief Minister candidate in due course.
