The government run Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML), situated in Lutyens’ Zone, is facing problems in expanding as the land allotted for its expansion and construction of a super-specialty wing has been illegally occupied by slum dwellers for over four decades.
“Ever since the land was allotted to the hospital 40 years ago, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital has been sending only revised proposals for building a super-speciality wing and quarters for the residential staff of the RML hospital, but the hospital administration has never taken any serious steps to vacate the slum dwellers from its land,” a senior doctor of RML hospital said.
Rajeev Sood, chairman of RML hospital, said: “For the past 40 years, the land belonging to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital was occupied by slum dwellers. After negotiating with the slum dwellers, we could only get 1.7 acres of land.”
Sood added: “The RML hospital has now completely reworked the construction plan and it has been passed by the Union Ministry of Health. As per the new proposal, a 16-storey super-speciality building with three layers of parking space will be built.”
“To deal with slum dwellers, a negotiation committee has been formed by the hospital. The committee is assigned to submit its report periodically to the development board of the hospital. On the instructions of the committee, the hospital administration has put up the matter before the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) for removing the jhuggis,” he said.
According to Sood, patients are suffering due to the lack of super-speciality facility and are being referred to other hospitals for super-speciality surgeries. “We have no other option until the work for the super-speciality wing is completed. We cannot address issues faced by all the patients,” Dr Sood said.
On December 2016, the Parliamentary Committee had also presented its report on the status of the hospital’s expansion plans in Parliament. The committee had said that the RML Hospital super-speciality block and a diagnostic centre dedicated to women are to be constructed.
Rajendra Singh, living with his family in one of the jhuggis on the hospital’s land, said, “We have been living here for a long time and we will not vacate the place till a rehabilitation plan for all the slum residents is in place.”