CPM, DMK, allies protest delay in Madurai AIIMS project

MADURAI: Scores of cadre led by CPM and its allies lodged a protest demonstration urging the need for taking up the much awaited All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) project in Madurai on Tuesday.

Standing amid the crowd, leaders, who spearheaded the protest under the banner ‘Where is our AIIMS?’ (Engal AIIMS Enge), of the political parties, carried bricks on the dais showing symbolically that nothing ever happened except for a brick left on the project site since the Union Government laid foundation stone on January 27, 2019.

They raised slogans condemning the delay caused by the Centre and stressed upon the need for expediting it to benefit the needy in Tamil Nadu, especially for those in the southern districts.

K Balakrishnan, state secretary, CPM appealed to the Centre to allot sufficient funds in the upcoming Union budget and take up the project in a speedy manner. If funds not allotted in the budget, widespread protests would be launched, he warned.

Su Venkatesan, Madurai MP, said the foundation for AIIMS project, which’s covered in the fifth phase, in Madurai, was laid in 2019 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a cost of Rs 1,264 crore, but even after a period of four years and two months, nothing happened.

Three years after the foundation was laid, the project cost increased to Rs 1,976 crore just for the addition of 150 beds. Even after the sixth and seventh phase of AIIMS took off in other parts of India, over 50 per cent of construction got over.

Except for one MP, all other MPs from Tamil Nadu intervened in the Parliament sessions 17 times urging the need for completion of AIIMS in Madurai. The demand for AIIMS in Madurai is not just confined to the ruling party in Tamil Nadu and its allies, but for the whole of seven crore people in the state.

In the ensuing Union budget, the Centre should allocate additional funds of Rs 350 crore towards the AIIMS project in Thoppur, Madurai. Not only for the AIIMS project, Tamil Nadu is being totally neglected in terms of airways, railways and also in allocation of development projects, the Madurai MP charged.

Manickam Tagore, Virudhunagar MP alleged partial treatment to Tamil Nadu as Rajkot AIIMS works in Gujarat were expedited.