There is more to hide than reveal in the 400-bed hospital deal
Over the past year, GKRA has kept a hawk’s eye on the proposed 400-bed hospital on two plots earmarked for public utility next to Archana Complex. One of which is owned by MCD and the other by DLF, but both are given on perpetual lease to a private charitable trust that has no notable work to its credit in GK-I over the past sixty years.
As reported earlier in Samvada, the 400-bed hospital has been a bone of contention between the residents of GK-I and the Lalchand Charitable Trust, a DLF family trust. People questioned how authorities could allow a charitable trust to operate a commercial hospital on public utility land owned by MCD.
More intriguingly, how did authorities allow the amalgamation of two plots, that too having different owners, without taking into consideration environmental, traffic, fire safety, or public view, or consulting the elected representatives? It was thanks to Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, who helped procure some information, that the project was cleared by the Standing Committee of MCD and forwarded to DDA for the amalgamation of plots. Area Councillor Shikha Rai too was approached by GKRA, and she officially raised the issue in the MCD House, posing five questions in writing for the MCD Commissioner’s official response.
The fact that MCD and other authorities have been evasive towards GKRA RTIs and have maintained an absolute silence to the councillor’s written query shows that there is more to hide than reveal. A few weeks back, DDA too replied to a letter stating that they merely adhered to the request made by the Standing Committee.
GKRA has since written letters to DDA and MCD seeking information under which clause of MPD-2021 was amalgamation allowed and the status of the MCD Commissioner’s response to Shikha Rai’s five questions, respectively. Residents of GK-I are closely watching their elected representatives to save the posh colony from traffic snarls, wailing sirens through the night, chemist shops lining HRJ Marg, squatters & vendors on footpaths, etc……. things are bad already…… imagine iffffff.
