Shifting of Nahan medical college a retrograde step: BJP

Terming the shifting of Dr YS Parmar Government Medical College as a retrograde step, the Oppostion BJP today initiated a signature campaign at Nahan while seeking people’s support.

Opposing this decision, Dr Bindal, BJP state president, said, "There was no rationale in shifting the college when crores have been invested in constructing its present building. Its work has been halted for the last more than two years and efforts are underway to shift it to Kanshiwala which is lamentable."

“The medical college had become a beacon of hope for the residents and it was providing specialty medical services to patients. Its work had progressed by leaps and bounds under the previous BJP regime but now its completion been halted and people were suffering,” asserted the former Nahan MLA.

He said at a time when the Congress government was seeking funds from the temple trusts to fund its schemes it was not possible to construct a medical college by investing Rs 500 crore.

The new construction would involve so many permissions like seeking forest clearance, axing trees, proving civic infrastructure like roads, sewage, water, constructing hostels, canteen, etc, which would take more than five years. It would also hit its approvals being sought from the Medical Council of India.

Dues worth crores incurred by the contractor have also been held up before the arbitration following which no work was underway.

Initiated as an extension of the district’s regional hospital, the college received Rs 265 crore for its expansion from the Union government more than five years ago. The strength of doctors had been enhanced from 15 to 115 to provide specialty healthcare during the BJP tenure.

Earlier, the BJP-led Nahan Municipal Council had refused to grant no objection certificate for the 161 bigha land to the medical health department at Kanshiwala village where the new medical college is supposed to be shifted.

Even as Nahan MLA Ajay Solanki maintained that the government was not shifting the medical college but was endeavouring to undertake its expansion at Kanshiwala, a distance of about 3 km, his assertion did not cut any ice with the residents as the fund-starved state government could ill-afford such undue expenditures.

Even the fate of Rs 70 crore meant for a nursing college and Rs 20 crore meant for a mother and child hospital looked uncertain if the college was shifted to a new location.

Dr Bindal said about 8,000-10,000 signatures of the people opposing the move would be secured from Nahan town in the next few days.