BJP spokesperson welcomes HC verdict on preferential treatment at GTB hospital to city residents

BJP national spokesperson and senior advocate Aman Sinha welcomed the Delhi High Court's verdict quashing the AAP government's circular on giving preferential treatment to city residents over others at the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital here Friday.

Terming the circular as "discriminatory" and "inhuman", he alleged that the new diktat of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was not only discriminatory but a "conspiracy" to create a divide among the people of the country.

"This was a completely discriminatory and inhuman diktat issued by the Delhi government and it deprived an ordinary citizen of India of the right to equality, life and good health. We believe that this was yet another conspiracy by the AAP government to create a divide between the people of this country," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.

 

He claimed that the circular was "specially devised" to target the people from "Purvanchal and all the migrants who come to Delhi".

"It was a policy against the people from Purvanchal and all other states. Therefore, it was unconstitutional and anti-India in fact," Sinha said.

He said had the high court not quashed the circular, he would have gone ahead to ensure that the practice was not followed and set aside at the earliest.

Sinha said the proposed move was "absolutely inhuman and unethical" and violative of the right to life under Article 21 and right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.

Under the pilot project implemented early October, Delhi residents were to get preference at the registration counters, in-patient department, tests and medicine counter at the hospital in east Delhi's Dilshad Garden and identification was to be done on the basis of voter identity card.

Sinha said the high court's decision should teach the AAP a lesson not to go ahead with its agenda of trying to "create a wedge between the people of this country".

The high court Friday set aside the circular, saying it had led to the creation of a "class within a class" of identically placed citizens which was "impermissible".