Gurgaon: Congress staged a protest on Monday against the prolonged delay in constructing the proposed civil hospital in Gurgaon, warning that party leaders and workers would launch an indefinite hunger strike if work does not begin within a month.Party leaders accused the state govt of repeatedly altering the project plan, resulting in years of delay despite the city’s growing healthcare needs. Congress Gurgaon (Urban) district president Pankaj Dawar questioned the govt’s commitment to the project, noting that senior ministers and the local MP had visited repeatedly and made announcements without any ground-level progress.“The health minister, Union minister and MP have visited Gurgaon several times and made big claims, but construction has not advanced even a single step. Leaders come here, make promises and get photographs taken, but the project remains stalled. The BJP office was constructed in record time, but the hospital has seen no movement,” said Dawar.He said the absence of a functional govt hospital in a city of Gurgaon’s size and population reflected a failure of governance.“Lakhs of people cannot afford treatment at private hospitals. Every day, patients are forced to run from one place to another due to the lack of affordable healthcare,” he said.The protest comes shortly after the Haryana govt appointed Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) as the executing agency for the project, replacing Central Public Works Department (CPWD), which had been handling planning and design.Health minister Arti Singh Rao said last Thursday that HSIIDC will oversee construction of the Rs 1,054-crore hospital near Police Lines, and that officials have been directed to complete remaining formalities at the earliest. The latest design proposes a 400-bed facility with provision for 200 additional beds in a second phase.Congress leaders said the lack of a public hospital forces poor patients to either seek costly private treatment or travel to Delhi and Rohtak, with delays proving critical in emergencies. The party also pointed to Gurgaon’s rapidly growing population, expanding industrial base, and rising road accidents as reasons why a large public healthcare facility has become urgent.Gurgaon currently has one major public hospital — Civil Hospital in Sector 10 — which handles an average of 2,000 OPD patients daily.The original Civil Lines hospital, built in 1967, was declared structurally unsafe after six roof-collapse incidents between 2015 and 2016, including in the maternity ward and ICU. PWD issued unsafe-building declarations in both 2015 and 2017 following safety audits, after which critical services were shifted to the Sector 10 facility.
