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‘I live and work in Delhi, am I a Delhiite?’: Chidambaram asks CM Kejriwal
P Chidambaram, who also doubles up as lawyer, asked CM Kejriwal if any legal opinion was taken before deciding to reserve hospital beds for Delhi residents.
Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday sought to know from chief minister Arvind Kejriwal as to who qualifies to be a Delhi resident, reacting to the government’s decision to mark hospital beds for its residents.
“Mr. Kejriwal says Delhi hospitals are only for Delhiites. Will he please tell us who is a Delhiite? If I live or work in Delhi, am I a Delhiite?,” tweeted the Congress leader.
Chidambaram, who also doubles up as lawyer, asked if any legal opinion was taken before making such an announcement.
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“I thought if a person had enrolled in Jan Arogya Yojana/Aayushman Bharat, he can seek treatment in any enlisted hospital, public or private, anywhere in India? Did Mr Kejriwal take legal opinion before he made his announcement?,” asked Chidambram.
However, Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal has directed authorities that no patient should be denied treatment for not being a resident of Delhi, overruling the AAP government’s earlier order.
As complaints escalated on social media on the quality of treatment at Delhi’s hospitals, CM Kejriwal declared on Sunday that all government and private hospitals in the city would only treat Delhi residents while the Central government hospitals will remain open to all. The declaration sits at odds with the stated aim of the AAP government: “AAP ki sarkar (government for you).”
For identifying the residents, voter IDs, bank passbooks, ration cards, driving licences, phone and electricity bills in addition to Aadhaar cards carrying a residential address from the city were said to be considered.
Earlier today, the Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said the current doubling rate of Covid-19 in the city-state is 14 days so the national capital as per that estimation will see over 56,000 cases by the end of next two weeks.
Defending his government, he said, “Delhi and Mumbai are big metros which are facing a heavy brunt of the virus. A lot of foreigners come here, and had flights been closed earlier, the infection would not have spread that much. But given the situation now, when for the past several days, over 1000 cases are being reported every day, the situation is that Delhi people would need more space in hospitals.”
The minister claimed that cases weren’t much in neighbouring cities.
The number of coronavirus cases in the national capital crossed the 28,000-mark with 1,282 fresh infections, while the death toll climbed to 812 on Sunday.
Barring June 1, when Delhi saw a spike of 990 cases, it has been recording over 1,000 fresh cases every day from May 28 to June 7, the highest being 1,513 on June 3.
The national capital has nearly 29,000 coronavirus cases, country’s third highest after Maharashtra (85,975) and Tamil Nadu (30,152).
