AIIMS in Madurai: Notice to Centre, Tamil Nadu

When the petition came up for hearing on Wednesday, the HC bench ordered notice to central and state governments directing them to submit counter affidavits. K K Ramesh, from Madurai, in his public interest litigation petition, had stated that at present the doctor-patient ratio in the state was one doctor per 3,000 patients. 

Due to this gap, people from economically backward families could not get proper healthcare. Under this circumstance, setting up of AIIMS in the state was a necessity. Madurai has all the facilities for setting up of an AIIMS hospital. Bringing an AIIMS to Madurai would benefit the people of more than 15 districts and neighbouring state of Kerala. 

Till date, the central government has not declared the exact location to set up the hospital. People of different regions in the State were also staging protests demanding to declare the location of the AIIMS in the state.  Hence the state and the central governments should immediately declare the place where the AIIMS would be setup, prayed the petitioner. 

After hearing the petition on Wednesday, the court issued notice to state and central governments to file counter affidavits and adjourned the case to July 12.

The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday questioned the state government that if they were against the three-language policy, then why Hindi was being permitted in private schools.

Jeyakumar Thomas from Nagercoil, in his public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed at the bench, said the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs), coming under MHRD, reserved 75% of the seats for rural students. The petitioner argued that the state government should provide free land to open JNV school in that state. Defending the state’s decision of not proving free land to the JNVs, the government has argued that it was against the three-language formula followed by such schools and there were enough schools of the state government in Tamil Nadu. After arguments by both sides, the case was adjourned to July 12.