Soon after Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal overturned the decision of the Arvind Kejriwal government reserving hospitals only for city residents, a high-voltage fight ensued between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP on Monday.
The Lt Governor acted a day after Kejriwal announced that Delhi government hospitals will be available for the residents of the city only, while those run by the Central government will remain open to all.
Kejriwal's deputy Manish Sisodia hit out at Baijal saying: "BJP state governments are involved in PPE and ventilator scams. The Delhi government is trying to manage the disaster. The BJP is not able to bear it. Therefore, it has indulged in cheap politics by pressurising the LG."
The BJP, on the other hand, welcomed Baijal's decision and said it would give a big relief to people. "It was against civil rights of people," BJP's newly-appointed state President Adesh Kumar Gupta said about the Chief Minister's decision.
Gupta said the BJP had been already seeking a rollback of the move. He was critical of the manner in which the Kejriwal government had "tried to cover up its inefficiency" by blocking the testing of asymptomatic people and the treatment of people from outside the city.
Appealing to Kejriwal to work on the ground so that the "present atmosphere of fear" came to an end, he maintained that every citizen had a right to access health services anywhere, and no state government could discriminate against anyone on this count.
The Lt Governor, who is also the Chairman of Delhi Disaster Management Authority, had in his order, said that "treatment should not be denied to any patient on grounds of being a non-resident".
( With inputs from IANS )