Ma Su denies statement of finance minister over delay in construction of AIIMS Madurai
He said that the statement of the finance minister is misleading after she said that the AIIMS hospital is delayed today because the state government did not take acquisition of the identified land and that the amount allocated for the construction has been increased from Rs 1200 crore to Rs 1900 crore
Health minister Ma Subramanian
CHENNAI: Health minister Ma Subramanian refutes the statement of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman regarding the delay in construction of AIIMS Madurai in parliament on Thursday.
He said that the statement of the finance minister is misleading after she said that the AIIMS hospital is delayed today because the state government did not take acquisition of the identified land and that the amount allocated for the construction has been increased from Rs 1200 crore to Rs 1900 crore.
The announcement for the construction of AIIMS in seven States was made in 2015 and though all of them were notified at the same time, the colleges have started or classes have begun ind five places and the one in Bihar and Jammu is being constructed. The hospitals that were announced in 2017 and 2019 have become operational now in other parts of the country, however, Madurai AIIMS is being delayed. Ma Subramanian said that the foundation stone was laid in 2019 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but no construction has begun yet.
The finance minister said that the Tamil Nadu government has not acquired the land, which is delaying the construction of the hospital. However, this is misleading because Prime Minister laid the foundation on 27 January, 2019 after the land acquisition, which was four years ago. Moreover, it is a government owned land of 222.47 acres of land and the previous government led by Edappadi K Palaniswami had handed over the land to the Union Government.
He added that JICA officials inspected the site in February 2020 and had decided to construct a perimeter wall. The Union Government allocated Rs 15 crore for the construction of the perimeter wall, which was completed in January 2021.
The AIIMS Medical College Hospitals in other States are run by the Union Government funding but even after allocating the state government land, the Union government advised to take loan from JICA without providing any source of funds for Tamil Nadu. The Union Government is discriminating against Tamil Nadu by not providing funds and former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami did not object to these discriminatory measures.
He said that Guindy Multi-Super Speciality Hospital with 1000 beds was constructed at an estimate of Rs.376 crores in 1 year but the union government laid the foundation stone and no construction has been done for 4 years. The estimate was Rs 1200 crores and the minister is proudly saying that it has now increased to 1900 crores. When we asked JICA in Japan about this, the officials said that the construction would be completed by the end of 2024. It is said that these buildings will be fully constructed only in 2028 when the architecture of the building is finalized. We have requested JICA to complete the work of allocating funds for construction of the building as soon as possible,' he said.
The minister urged the Union Finance Minister to show the same concern towards Tamil Nadu as shown to other states and not blame others. "If the Union Government gives the complete funding and starts the construction of the hospital, it can be completed within 2 years.