NEW DELHI: In a major goof-up while providing information under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi gave wrong information to the Leader of the Opposition in the civic body, Subhash Arya. While Mr. Arya was told that 23,908 deliveries were conducted in MCD's 26 maternity homes between 2001and 2005, a senior MCD health officer on Thursday said the earlier figure was incorrect as 27,993 babies were delivered in five years.

Mr. Arya had recently submitted an application under the RTI Act asking certain questions on the state of maternity homes and centres being run by the MCD. In its reply, the civic body had stated that during 2001-05, 23,908 deliveries had taken place in its 26 maternity homes, while the expenditure on running these maternity homes and 115 centres was Rs.155.94 crores.

However, MCD's Director (Health Administration), Dr. Madhu Jain, said 27,993 deliveries were conducted at their nursing homes, while about 4.5-lakh women patients had registered at these places. However, she did not comment on the earlier data given to Mr. Arya by her department.

Interestingly, the Additional Commissioner (Health) had signed the paper on which information was given to the Bharatiya Janata Party leader.

Expressing shock at the incident, Mr. Arya accused the MCD administration of not taking the RTI Act seriously and giving wrong information to people. "When applications from a senior leader like me are not taken seriously, one can well imagine the fate of applications by the common man filed under the Act implemented to bring transparency in the system," he charged, adding that the Health Department had failed to perform its duties over the years and was now trying to justify its wrongdoings.

The Leader of the Opposition said maternity homes were proved to be a drain on the MCD finances.

"Between 2001-05, a whopping Rs.155.94 crore was spent on maternity homes and centres, but still a majority of deliveries were conducted in private nursing homes and government hospitals clearly indicating that people do not trust the civic body's maternity homes and centres," Mr. Arya added.

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