Patna: The proposed second All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bihar has turn into the topic of a heated political dispute, with the Union well being ministry rejecting the brand new website supplied by the state authorities in Darbhanga for its building.
Whereas the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) led central authorities, in a letter to the Bihar authorities — dated 26 Could — has known as the land “unfit”, the Janata Dal (United) authorities in Bihar has blamed the Centre for “delaying” the second AIIMS.
The letter, which got here to mild Monday, is dated 26 Could and has been accessed by ThePrint.
Following the Union authorities’s rejection of the proposed land, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, talking to the media at an occasion Monday, hinted that the state authorities won’t be allotting one other piece of land for the venture.
“Nahi banana hai toh nahi banao. Humko kya? Jab BJP sarkaar hategi, toh achha kaam hoga (In case you don’t need to construct it, don’t. How does it have an effect on us? When the BJP authorities is voted out, that’s when good work might be carried out),” he mentioned.
Rajiv Ranjan, nationwide president of the JD(U), instructed ThePrint, “It’s a deliberate try by the Centre to defer the development of the second AIIMS in Bihar.”
“They’re presuming that they are going to win within the subsequent Lok Sabha and meeting polls in Bihar and the second AIIMS might be constructed with their authorities in each locations. We all know that the BJP goes to be defeated in Lok Sabha polls and as soon as our authorities comes, we are going to the construct the second AIIMS inside 2 years,” he added.
Ranjan additionally identified that the state authorities had already acquired over 181 acres for the AIIMS at a price of greater than Rs 300 crores.
The BJP, in the meantime, has attributed the delay of the Rs 2,000 crore venture to CM Nitish’s inflexibility on the matter, to “deny PM Narendra Modi the credit score”.
Chatting with ThePrint, BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi mentioned, “For 2 years, CM Nitish Kumar mentioned that Darbhanga Medical School & Hospital (DMCH) must be transformed to AIIMS. Later, after they have been instructed that an outdated school couldn’t be transformed into a brand new AIIMS, the Bihar CM promised to offer 150 acres of land of DMCH for a similar and even acquired 82 acres.”
“There was a tug of struggle between Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and JD(U) leaders to take credit score for AIIMS in Darbhanga. Later, land was acquired at Sobhan situated on the outskirts of the city close to the East-West hall. The land, nevertheless, was discovered unfit for the aim,” he added.
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‘Excessive venture prices, time consuming’
In a letter to Pratyaya Amrit, extra chief secretary of presidency of Bihar in control of well being division, Rajesh Bhushan, secretary, Union well being ministry wrote that the land supplied by the state authorities for building of AIIMS, Darbhanga, was “unfit” and requested him to offer one other appropriate land for a similar.
Bhushan added {that a} workforce of officers from the ministry had visited the positioning proposed by the federal government on 27 April this 12 months and located it to be “about 7 metres down from the method highway i.e. Shobhan By-pass to Ekmi Ghat Darbhanga, together with many massive and small deep dug land pockets current within the website the place earth filling of greater than 10 metres might be required (sic)”.
Based on the workforce, he added, filling and compacting the full space would require “an enormous amount” of fine soil that will not be present in or close to Darbhanga, may result in excessive venture prices and show to be a time-consuming course of.
The workforce, the letter added, additionally identified that the present soil has “swelling and shrinkage traits” and pose a critical menace to the constructed construction. It additionally famous chance of water logging within the surrounding low-land space.
The promise and delay
Bihar acquired its first AIIMS in 2013 in Patna — seventh within the nation.
It was late Union finance minister Arun Jaitley who introduced a second AIIMS for Bihar throughout his budgetary speech in 2015-16.
This was adopted by a tug of struggle between MLAs and MPs of Bhagalpur, Sahara and Darbhanga — all of whom wished the AIIMS to be constructed of their respective cities. In 2020, Nitish introduced that the AIIMS might be inbuilt Darbhanga. Nonetheless, the proposal to transform the outdated DMCH was opposed by its medical doctors. Furthermore, the Union well being ministry mentioned outdated medical faculties can’t be transformed into AIIMS.
It was in April this 12 months that the federal government supplied land on the outskirts of Darbhanga, however with the well being ministry rejecting it, AIIMS turns into yet another subject the JD(U) can blame the BJP-led central authorities for because the 2024 Lok Sabha elections draw nearer.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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