Centre delaying AIIMS notification, says Kaul Singh

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 23

A blame game has erupted between the ruling Congress and the BJP ahead of the coming Assembly elections over the setting up of the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) proposed to be set at Bilaspur, the home town of Union Heath Minister JP Nadda.

While the state Congress government claims that the Centre did not issue notification for the proposed AIIMS, the state BJP blames the delay on the part of the ruling Congress, saying the state “delayed the allotment of land to the AIIMS and did not get forest clearance”.

According to sources, Union Health Minister JP Nadda is taking credit for awarding AIIMS to Himachal, which would be set up in his home district, but not during the Congress regime, but when the BJP is in power here as per the party’s hopes.

Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur has dismissed the BJP charge that the state government was delaying the setting of AIIMS. “The fact is that Union Health Ministry has not issued notification till date”, Thakur asserted.

He said the Centre had not issued notification for AIIMS and the BJP was unnecessary airing rumours and misleading people in the name of AIIMS to get political mileage. Thakur said the state government had transferred land at Kohtipura in Bilaspur as proposed by JP Nadda in name of the Health Department on April, 6, 2016 and informed the Union Health Ministry on April 24, 2016 about it. “But he did not notify the AIIMS till now. BJP leaders should ask Nadda to fast track notification”.

Kaul Singh said that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had himself taken up the matter with Prime Minister thrice – on November 30, 2015, January 15, 2016 and February 5, 2016 but no response had been received from the Centre”.

Thakur claimed that the Union Ministry of Health had not released funds to be spent on preparing the contour plan of AIIMS, he added. The Central team inspected the AIIMS site recently, but it gave no inspection report to the state. The Centre was deliberatively delaying the process, claimed the minister.