‘Madurai will get AIIMS in 45 months after Centre clears project report’

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by KK Ramesh came up for hearing before Justices KK Sasidharan and Justice PD Audikesavalu.

V Kathirvel, Assistant Solicitor General of central government, who appeared for the of Union Health Secretary, claimed that preliminary works to establish the hospital were under way at Thoppur in Madurai district. The project report for constructing the hospital had already been submitted to central government’s finance committee. Once the committee gives its approval, it would be placed before the union cabinet for its nod.

On November 8, the court after hearing the PIL, raised a volley of questions to the Union Health Secretary, including as to when the construction of the AIIMS would commence. The bench also sought to know what measures and actions were taken to initiate the project to establish the hospital in Madurai district as announced by the Centre earlier this year.

According to the petitioner, though the Union government had come out with the announcement about setting up the AIIMS unit way back in February 2015, it was not confirmed for nearly three years, whether the facility would come up in Tamil Nadu. Later, Thoppur was finally identified as the site to host the prestigious medical college, the announcement for which came out on June 20, 2018.

However, nearly five months have passed by without any progress. While the construction work for the AIIMS announced for other states have already begun, there was no headway in TN, the petitioner rued. Hence, he demanded that the Central government should notify in its gazette that the hospital would be set up in Thoppur and also ensure that the project was taken up at the earliest.

The petitioner while pointing out that the union government should convene a cabinet meeting and adopt a resolution to expedite the project, also sought a direction to the Centre to allot adequate funds for the project.