Touts hijacking free treatment scheme: Court
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said the Farishte Dilli Ke scheme was being “hijacked” by touts and steps should be taken to prevent its misuse.
According to the Farishte Dilli Ke scheme, the Delhi government bears all treatment expenses of victims of accidents, acid attacks and burn injuries, in any Delhi government hospital.
A bench of Justice G S Sistani and Justice AJ Bhambhani said the scheme was being hijacked by touts and expressed displeasure on the delay on the filing of a comprehensive report on the state of affairs of 35 government hospitals in Delhi.
“The scheme (Farishte Dilli ke ) is largely misused by touts. They seem to have hijacked the entire scheme. Let’s say if a person has a small fall in the house, he’s pushed by these touts to visit the hospital. It is overburdening the hospitals with such patients,” the bench said.
Replying, Sanjoy Ghose, additional standing counsel, told the court that the scheme to provide free treatment to victims of road accidents, acid attacks and burn injures was started with the most noble intention of saving human lives and the government at the highest level was committed to check any possible misuse.
“Attempts can be made to misuse the best of schemes. The concerns of the hon’ble court will be conveyed to the highest levels of the government,” Delhi law minister’s office said in a statement.
The court was hearing a plea by a woman named Madhubala, who had lost her newborn allegedly due to the negligence of hospital authorities. In her plea filed through advocate Prashant Manchanda, she had sought better medical facilities in hospitals run by the Delhi government.
On Wednesday, a court-constituted committee filed its report, stating it had visited all 35 government hospitals and was now in the process of collating and analysing data/information received so far.
The report attributed the slow pace in the working of the committee to the delay in submission of information by many hospitals/departments.
“In this regard, it is pertinent to mention that the detailed formats/questionnaires were prepared and sent by the committee to all hospital administrators for compliance long ago,” the report read.
The committee sought two more months to file a comprehensive report on the basic facilities available, vacancies and other important factors for the functioning of hospitals.
The bench did not accept the request, saying “it’s a never-ending process”.
“You must now start addressing the real concerns. You must improve hygiene facilities in hospitals, address infrastructure issues such as immediate installation of life-saving equipments that are not available, MRI machines, availability of medicines, etc.,” the court said.
The court directed the committee to file its report within a month and asked medical superintendents of all hospitals to supply information or face action.
The matter will be heard on December 5.
