‘No counsellor for rape victims in city hospitals’

NEW DELHI: The one-stop centres (OSCS) set up for rape survivors at 11 hospitals in the national Capital do not have a single counsellor to provide the victims the much needed psychological assistance, a CAG report said on Friday.

As per the CAG report tabled on Friday in Delhi Assembly, 3,822 cases were reported in these centres from 2015 out of which 1,219 were cases of sexual assault (32 per cent) till August 2016.

“Yet no counsellor was posted in any of the OSCS in whose absence the basic objective of creation of OSCS for providing psychological assistance to rape victims remained largely unattended,” the report stated.

The audit revealed that despite clear directions on recruitment of staff for proper functioning of OSCS, hospitals did not initiate steps for recruitment of required staff.

Besides, poor planning and execution caused delay in timely completion of health projects, upgradation of health care facilities and “denial of the intended benefits” to needy patients in the capital city, the report noted.

According to the report, the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) took possession of 77,558.35 sqm of land during 2007-16 for setting up of 30 new health care facilities at a cost of Rs 14.26 crore.

“But none of these plots were utilised as of August 2016,” the report said.