Hours after praising the AAP government’s Mohalla Clinic initiative, Karnataka Health Minister and Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao on Friday said it is “overhyped” and he was left “disappointed” after a visit to one such facility.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in a statement, alleged that Mr Rao received a phone call after praising the mohalla clinic initiative and thereafter changed his stance.
Rao alone can clarify why his statement changed from praising the mohalla clinic to criticising it, the AAP said, adding it was “unfortunate”.
The Congress and the AAP are members of the opposition INDIA bloc.
On Friday, Rao visited an ‘Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinic’ at Panchsheel Park in Delhi. He was accompanied by Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and Karnataka Bhavan medical officer Karthik, according to an official statement.
Almost four hours after praising the mohalla clinic initiative, Gundu Rao made a U-turn.
“Visited a mohalla clinic in Delhi with hardly any people there. Our clinics in Karnataka have more facilities, including a laboratory, to do immediate tests for patients,” the Congress leader tweeted. “I guess it is overhyped and I came back feeling disappointed,” he said on Twitter.
During the visit, the Karnataka minister saw the facilities at the mohalla clinic and enquired about the welfare of staffers.
Speaking to reporters during his visit to the Panchsheel Park mohalla clinic, Rao had praised the mohalla clinic model and said that it is functioning “very well”.
“I had heard a lot about mohalla clinics and I wanted to see them personally. I wanted to discuss how they (AAP government) are implementing the health policies,” he had told reporters.
“In southern states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, health has always been a priority. Every state has got something good that we can learn from. We have something similar (to mohalla clinics)… we have ‘namma clinics’. We wanted to see how we can improve our system. I saw the mohalla clinic and it is functioning very well People are also appreciating it,” he had said.
The AAP said the comparison between the mohalla clinic and namma clinic is “unjust”.
With inputs from NDTV
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