Palampur: Jaypee Healthcare insolvency not to hit Shanta Kumar’s dream project

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, July 2

Recently, the Allahabad Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had given an oral order to admit Jaypee Healthcare for corporate insolvency and resolution process in regards to a petition filed by JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction Company.

However, Vivekananda Hospital and Medical Research Trust (VMRT), Palampur, being run under the supervision of Jaypee Healthcare, will continue to function as usual and will not be impacted by the insolvency resolution process.

Jaypee Group of Industries had taken over the VMRT project in Palampur in 2013, following a tripartite agreement signed between Jaypee Group of Industries, VMRT, and the state government.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) involved VMRT, Jaypee Sewa Sansthan (JSS) — a non-profit trust — and the government. JSS has provided financial, managerial, technical and organisational support for the setting up of a super-specialty medical college, along with a nursing college, at VMRT for the past 12 years. While the nursing college is functional, the medical college is yet to start operations.

The government had provided over 60 acres of prime land for the setting up of the project in Palampur.

The VMRT project was launched in 1992 by BJP leader and former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar with a view to providing the best-possible healthcare to the lower areas of the state.

He had received liberal donations amounting to Rs 25 crore for the construction of the institution, often regarded as his dream project.

However, with the change of government and Shanta Kumar’s exit as the CM in 1992, the project failed to materialise as the Congress-led state government halted the work.

Later in 2013, Shanta Kumar approached the Jaypee Group to run the project, after which a deal was signed by JSS managing trustee Manoj Gaur; state Principal Health Secretary Deepak Shanan; and Shanta Kumar, chairman of VMRT.

Trust director Bimal Dubey, while speaking to The Tribune here today, said the VMRT had no connection to Jaypee Healthcare since it was an independent trust of the Jaypee Group.

It was only getting technical support from Jaypee Healthcare, which had no involvement in its finances, he added.

He said if Jaypee Healthcare was taken over by some other hospital chain, there would be no effect on the functioning of VMRT, Palampur. VMRT was not a part of the company which was facing insolvency, he claimed.