No plan to set up AIIMS in Jalandhar: Centre

The Centre has clarified that there is no proposal to establish an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Jalandhar in the current phase of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).

Responding to a query by Punjab MP Charanjit Singh Channi in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav said 22 such institutes had been approved across the country under the scheme so far, including AIIMS-Bathinda, which was already operational.

The PMSSY, launched in 2003, aims to correct regional imbalances in access to affordable and reliable tertiary healthcare services and to augment quality medical education facilities in the country.

To further strengthen tertiary healthcare infrastructure in Punjab, the Centre said super-specialty blocks had been constructed at Government Medical College, Amritsar, and Government Medical College, Patiala, under the scheme, in collaboration with the state government on a cost-sharing basis.

However, the Centre made it clear that Jalandhar did not feature among the current locations identified for setting up an AIIMS.

Interestingly, Channi had raised the same question during the winter session last year and had received a similar response from the government.

The talks of setting up an AIIMS in Jalandhar had surfaced a decade ago when then Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had met then CM Parkash Singh Badal in Delhi. Reportedly, Vardhan had assured him an AIIMS in Jalandhar for which Badal had also agreed to provide 200 acres of land free of cost to the Centre.