BJP govt declined permission to Delhi Health Minister for Australia visit: AAP

New Delhi: The AAP on Saturday said the Ministry of External Affairs has declined permission to a Delhi government delegation which was to visit Australia on the invitation of University of Melbourne & George Institute in Sydney. The Schedule included a dialogue on Mohalla Clinics and Health revolution of Delhi with the Victorian Government. The MEA has said that permission is denied from the political angle, the AAP said.

'Modi Govt is so petty that they denied permission to Delhi Health Minister for his visit to Australian Universities to talk about Mohalla Clinics & Health revolution in Delhi.

"Permission Denied due to Political Angle" - official response of Central Govt of India,'' AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj tweeted.

Responding to the development, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said, ''I would like to know the exact reason behind the MEA's "political angle".'' The delegation led by Mr Jain was to visit Australia on the request of University of Melbourne & George Institute in Sydney.

''The BJP led Union Government has once again shown that how much they fear the good work of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and how they don't want the good work of the Delhi Government to be showcased,'' the AAP said in a statement.

The University of Melbourne, Australia, was scheduled to host a dialogue on health and its diverse aspects with representatives of the Health Department of Delhi Government and Victoria Government to explore the possibilities to engage in the field of Public Health and universal health care on November 26-27.

Mr Jain was supposed to share and discuss the much applauded innovative concept of the network of Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics (AAMCs) in Delhi. He was supposed to deliver a lecture on the health care initiative taken by the Government of Delhi and share the experiencing for launching extensive Universal Health Care reforms in the National Capital Region of Delhi.

The meeting had a lot of scope for mutual learning and collaboration in the field of Universal Health Care (UHC). It is stated that Australia's existing health infrastructure and systems are one of the best in the world. In the meeting, other public health issues like dengue and possible solutions with the help of latest health care technologies developed by scientists in Australia were to be discussed.

The delegation was supposed to see the functioning of few health facilities & visit George Institute of Global Health, Sydney to learn best practices in Public Health.

''It is quite obvious from the central government diktat to decline the travel request that they are not bothered for the country and its successes and rather are more interesting in crushing their political opponents and works done by the AAP government,'' the AAP said.

The AAP government condemns the ''petty step taken by the Union government and vows to work more hard for the people of Delhi to set an example not only for other state governments of the country but an example which could be followed worldwide.''The Mohalla Clinics made by the Delhi government has been praised not only by several world leaders & governments but has also been applauded by international media time and again, the AAP said.

Several delegations of health experts, international governments and researchers have visited these clinics in Delhi and have been very happy to see them, it added.