Finance dept creating roadblocks in bringing pro-people welfare projects

The Delhi Assembly's Petitions Committee on Wednesday accused the city government's Finance department of creating roadblocks in implementing pro-people welfare projects, such as Yamuna cleaning, laying of water pipelines and disbursal of pension to the elderly.

Committee member Saurabh Bhardwaj said data entry operators engaged in hospitals for years had been sacked after the Finance department impeded the disbursal of their salaries.

Government healthcare facilities have been working without them for six months, he said.

Funds for the Delhi Jal Board have been frivolously withheld for the last six months, derailing essential projects such as cleaning of the Yamuna, drinking water pipelines and laying sewerage lines. Within the Social Welfare department, objections are repeatedly raised by the Finance department on pension of the elderly, due to which they have to wait for months for pension, Bhardwaj as quoted was saying in a statement.

"The Finance department of the Delhi Government is creating roadblocks in the implementation of pro-people policies of every department. Even the policies being implemented for several years now without any problem, the officials of the Finance Department ask queries or Cabinet notes.

"Last week, the Finance department stopped the disbursal of salaries of the doctors of mohalla clinics. They also stopped free tests by asking for a Cabinet note on the issue, which is absolutely bizarre. Today, we saw the Finance department creating a problem in the payment of salaries of data entry operators in the Health department," Bhardwaj said.

These data entry operators have been working for several years and assist healthcare workers in creating OPD cards for patients. Most hospitals have also removed these data entry operators as the Finance department was causing issues in disbursal of their salaries, he said.

"Now they have said another department of the government will decide how many DEOs are to be engaged in each hospital. Hospitals in Delhi have been without DEOs for six months and this has been creating chaos at our government healthcare facilities.

"We have also seen the Finance Department delay the pension provided to senior citizens in Delhi by the Social Welfare Department by asking queries that are unnecessary. This has led to the pensions being disbursed after a delay of 2-3 months," Bhardwaj said.

The AAP leader also alleged that pensions of as many as 426,058 senior citizens are repeatedly withheld in Delhi with the Centre not paying its share of Rs 200.