New Delhi [India], March 5: Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta visited the Shalimar Bagh area on Wednesday, where she highlighted several ongoing issues, including water scarcity, poor road conditions, and the unresolved problem of tree-cutting, which she attributed to the previous AAP government.
Speaking to the media, CM Gupta emphasized that many problems had been pending since the tenure of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. She particularly noted the water-related issues in the areas she visited and the challenge posed by the increasing stray dog population across the city. Regarding the latter, she suggested that expert opinions and legal guidance would be necessary to tackle the issue while ensuring animal rights protection.
“There have been many issues, including water, roads, and tree cutting, that have been pending since the last government. The areas that I visited today are facing water-related issues. There is a problem of stray dogs across the city. We will have to take the opinion of experts and the law on this. We have to work to ensure that animal rights are protected and also help the public,” CM Rekha Gupta said.
Earlier this week, CM Gupta conducted an inspection of the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) hospital, where she criticized the previous AAP government for the alleged wastage of healthcare equipment and the poor state of health infrastructure in Delhi.
Referring to the recently tabled CAG report in the Delhi Assembly, the Chief Minister claimed that thousands of crores worth of hospital equipment mentioned in the report had not been used since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gupta alleged that the AAP government had constructed only temporary buildings instead of real health facilities.
“The inspection is going on and in this hospital, I can see that the entire godown is filled with equipment,” CM Gupta told reporters.
She went on to detail the vast quantities of unused equipment in GTB hospital, including 458 oxygen concentrators, 146 ventilators, and 36,000 PPE kits, all of which have been left untouched since the pandemic. According to Gupta, this situation was not unique to GTB hospital, with similar conditions in almost every hospital’s storage.
“As per the hospital’s list, there are 458 oxygen concentrators, 146 ventilators, 36,000 PPE kits. There are masks, bedding, and so many things that are lying out here since the Corona outbreak. This is not just the story of one hospital, but godowns in almost every hospital are filled like this,” CM Gupta said.
She further stated that the equipment, despite being worth crores of rupees, was no longer in a usable condition and criticized the previous government’s inability to properly manage healthcare resources during the pandemic.