Hoshiarpur cancer hospital fails to take off

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, January 30

The construction of the Tertiary Care Cancer Centre at Hoshiarpur has not begun even 11 months after its foundation stone was laid by former MP and Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Santosh Chaudhary.

The hospital will be built at a cost of Rs 45 crore. Ninety per cent of the cost is to be borne by the Union Government, while the state government will give the remaining 10 per cent. The Centre has not released any funds for the purpose so far.

Information procured by advocate Aastha Bagga under the RTI Act indicates the hospital construction may not take off in near future as funds are not likely to be issued for it.

At the time of the foundation stone-laying ceremony on February 28, 2014, it was announced that the hospital would be named after Late Rai Bahadur Jodha Mal, a philanthropist of Hoshiarpur.

Aastha Bagga said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed her that no money had been released for the construction of TCCC so far. There was no such proposal so far. She said, “The government reportedly agrees that Hoshiarpur was identified for strengthening the TCCC under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS). No money has been released for it so far as the proposal was not recommended by the inspection team and the standing committee on Tertiary Care of Cancer Programme under NPCDCS.”

Aastha Bagga has urged Union Minister of State and MP from Hoshiarpur Vijay Sampla to take up the matter with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare so that cancer patients from the district and its adjoining areas in Himachal Pradesh don’t have to go to Ludhiana and Chandigarh for treatment.