Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President Devender Yadav on Sunday suggested that the BJP government should improve Mohalla Clinics, which he alleged had been turned into a money-making venture by the previous AAP government.

He said that the Delhi government should first improve the condition of these health centers which are not in a good shape at the moment instead of rushing to name these clinics as ‘Ayushman Arogya Mandir’.

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Yadave said if the BJP government is keen to rename the Mohalla Clinics, they should rename them as “Dr Ambedkar Prathmik Swasth Kendra” (Dr Ambedkar Primary Health Centre), as Baba saheb had devoted his entire life for the uplift of Dalits, the downtrodden and the marginalized, and for serving the poor.

He alleged that the then AAP government had used Mohalla Clinics as a cover to siphon off funds by conducting fake tests on ghost patients to make them a money-spinning venture, and not to provide any sort of free treatment to the poor and the needy in their neighbourhood.

He said Kejriwal’s model of health care was such a fake narrative that during his 11-year tenure, government hospitals became inhospitable places for patients and his boast of setting up 1,000 Mohalla Clinics in the first five years turned out to be a hollow promise as only 533 could be established in 11 years of which, most were non-functional due to lack of medicines, doctors, nurses and other support staff.

According to the Congress leader’s claims, over the years, most of the abandoned Mohalla Clinic became refuge for vagabonds, drug addicts, and stray cattle.

Yadav said the purpose of such clinics should be to provide free treatment to the poor near their homes and not to score political points on such issues.

He said during the Delhi Nyay Yatra before the Assembly elections, he had flagged serious issues in the functioning of Mohalla Clinics as they lay in a state of ruin without doctors and nurses.

Yadav accused Kejriwal of shutting down the well-run dispensaries established by the then Congress government to give free treatment to the poor, in a bid to make way for Mohalla Clinics.