North MCD wants to hand over 6 hosps to Centre, HC told
New Delhi: The Delhi government has now told the Delhi High Court that there exists a communication from 2018, which showed the North Delhi Municipal Corporation's intent to hand over the management of six of its hospitals to the Centre in a bid to save costs as it needed the money to pay salaries.
It further said that if the Centre is not ready to take over the hospitals, the Delhi government would be willing to run the institutions considering the fact that health is a State Subject.
The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North DMC) submitted however that it was an internal communication from the civic body's commissioner to the municipal secretary and it was not clear as to whether the corporation has passed any resolution in this regard and a status report will be filed in the court.
A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh was told by advocate Divya Prakash Pande for North DMC that he will file a report disclosing the present status of this proposal and also disclose the expenditures being incurred by the civic body in running these six hospitals and medical college presently.
The court, in its June 4 order, said that in case the central government has received any such proposal from the civic body for taking over of the six hospitals and
a medical college, it shall file a report on the status of the proposal which will be considered on July 8.
The court was informed by the Delhi government about a February 2018 communication sent by the North DMC commissioner to its municipal secretary relating to consolidated expenditure incurred in the years 2014 to 17 in running the six hospitals — Hindu Rao Hospital, Kasturba Hospital, R.B.I.PMT Hospital, Girdhari Lal Hospital, M.V.I.D. Hospital and Balak Ram Hospital.
The Delhi government said in its status report that the communication advocates these hospitals be handed over to the Centre to reduce the annual expenditure of Rs 500/600 crore incurred by the North DMC on hospitals and medical colleges.
Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, said the reason for bringing this communication before the court is that this bench is considering various aspects relating to COVID-19 management.
