Mohalla clinics under CBI lens

NEWDELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been quietly examining the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government’s ‘mohalla clinic’ project for more than a year, agency officials said.

“A preliminary enquiry (PE) was registered to probe the alleged irregularities in the project,” said a CBI official familiar with the matter.

A preliminary enquiry is registered to prima facie examine whether the allegations levelled in a particular complaint war- rants registration of a regular case or FIR.

Despite examining the allegations for more than a year, the CBI, so far, has not converted the PE into an FIR or regular case.

The mohalla clinic project has received accolades from across the world, including from Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations.

The matter was referred to the CBI by former Lt Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung.

Agency officials said at the moment they were studying records related to mohalla clin- ics and had examined several health department officials.

The project was launched to provide primary health care to people of Delhi in their respective colonies,in order to save them from going to hospitals for minor ailments.

At the moment, the Kejriwal government is operating more 160 such clinics and intends to establish around 1000 such centres across the city.

Reacting to the enquiry, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the move was a part of a larger conspiracy to derail projects of the AAP government.