Let Mandi-IIT run medical college, PM told

Tribune News Service

Mandi, June 29

The BJP has demanded that the ESIC Medical College and Hospital at Nerchowk in the district should be run by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bhuvneshwari Kapoor, former state secretary and member of the state executive, state BJP, said the ESIC Medical College should be handed over to the IIT-Mandi to run medical classes on the pattern of the IIT-Kharagpur. Kapoor said IIT-Kharapur was planning to start a medical college on its campus by 2017.

Kapoor said nearly Rs 1,000 crore was spent on the construction of the medical college at Nerchowk by the Union Labour Ministry. After the change of the government at the Centre, the Labour Ministry decided to withdraw from the medical college and since then it was lying unused. The Centre had offered the state government to take over the medical college building, but the state government was yet to take a decision on the issue.

State Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur had stated that the Centre should hand over the building to the state government free of cost, as the land for the college was given without charging any money.

Kapoor said Union Health Minister JP Nadda was also requested to start medical classes at the college from this academic session.