Demanding to accept the lowest financial bid to provide for BMC’s health scheme, ‘Apali Chikitsa’, BJP leader Prabhakar Shinde wrote to the Commissioner saying the citizens should benefit from the service. In a letter written to Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, dated January 5, 2023, Shinde said not to succumb to the pressure of other companies and centurions and float the tender again. The common Mumbaikars should benefit from it. The letter has been written in the backdrop of two tenders submitted with the BMC for running the ‘Apali Chikitsa’ scheme. “As per my knowledge, two companies have been qualified in the current contract issued by the Mumbai Municipal Corporation to run the ‘Apali Chikitsa’ scheme. One of them, Krishna Diagnostics, has emerged as the company offering the lowest rates. The rates offered by the said eligible company are less than 50% compared to other companies and current rates,” Shinde said. In the current contract, the companies charge Rs 200 per test per person from the municipal corporation. But the new eligible company has offered a rate of Rs.86, the BJP leader added. “Also, the municipal corporation has paid the guaranteed amount of minimum test per day even without testing. As a result, the former company has benefited to the tune of lakhs of rupees per month and thus they have not made any effective announcement of the said scheme. Due to this, the scope of the ‘Aapli Chikitsa’ scheme was very limited and it benefited the company and corrupt officials only,” Shinde alleged. “This proves that earlier companies were looting BMC by charging Rs 200 per person with the connivance of municipal authorities! This means that this scheme was not the earlier ‘Aapali Chikitsa’ scheme but the ‘Aapli Takkevari’ scheme which was made by Uddhav Sena. Scamming the scheme meant for poor patients is truly shameful,” Shinde said. The is a huge reduction in a new bid from Rs 200 to Rs 86. Citizens of Mumbai should directly benefit from this reduction, he said in the letter. “Now the rates have reduced significantly. So Mumbaikars should be charged a test fee of Rs 10 instead of Rs 50. So that common Mumbaikars, the poor will benefit from this. BMC is not a ‘chicken that lays golden eggs’ for contractors, officials and Uddhav Sena. But it is a civic body that cares about the common man,” Shinde added.
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