AIADMK plans to protest against delay in Madurai AIIMS project

MADURAI: AIADMK MLA RB Udhayakumar (Tirumangalam) said the Union government has been giving Tamil Nadu a step-motherly treatment as the much-awaited AIIMS Hospital project, for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone in Madurai on January 27, 2019, has not taken off.

The erstwhile AIADMK government under the leadership of Edappadi K Palaniswami allocated 224 acres of land for the project to come up at Thoppur in Madurai district. The Union government notified that the fund allocation towards the AIIMS project was increased from Rs1,200 crore to Rs1,900 crore.

But except for some works on the construction of a compound wall and approach road, the project did not make headway, Udhayakumar told reporters in Madurai on Saturday.

While the Centre made a budgetary allocation of funds towards AIIMS Hospitals for other states, the government entered into an agreement with JICA, the funding agency, in 2021 with 82 percent of its contribution toward the total cost of the project in Madurai. However, the government is still unable to get funds for the project.

Though COVID lockdown was a big reason for the delay in taking off the project in Madurai, works in other states for which the AIIMS projects were announced on the same day were completed.

Criticising the ruling DMK, he said just by showing up with a brick, the State government seems to politicise the project. Both the Central and State governments failed to carry out the project.

The Palaniswami-led AIADMK strived so hard to bring the dream project to Tamil Nadu and if there is any further delay in the AIIMS project, the AIADMK cadre would launch a protest to condemn the delay, he said.