Canadian NRI’s gift to his native village in Punjab — a multispeciality hospital
‘Corporate facilities at charitable rates — serve mankind, serve God’ is the tagline of a newly built multispeciality hospital at Taggar village on the Hoshiarpur-Tanda road.
Onkar Singh Taggar, who left the village in 1972 to settle in Canada, has built the four-storey Kartar Memorial Hospital with the help of his brothers, cousin and nephew. It will be inaugurated on March 9. He said the hospital was an expression of gratitude and ‘sewa’ for the people of the area.
“It will be no less than a corporate hospital in terms of facilities, but the cost of treatment will be affordable for all,” said Onkar Singh, who, after establishing a hotel business, made a name for himself in the real estate sector in Canada.
The hospital has been built in memory of Onkar Singh’s father, Capt Kartar Singh, on about 6 acres owned by the NRI and his cousin Paramjit Singh Taggar.
Hospital MD Paramveer Jagat said in the first phase, the 80-bed hospital would have 11 doctors, 30 nurses and 25 support staff providing outpatient and inpatient services in general surgery, general medicine, dental surgery, physiotherapy, gynaecology and paediatrics.
In the second phase, ortho services would be made available and a diagnostic centre would be started. Cardiology and ophthalmology departments will be started the next year.
“We have closely seen and felt the pain because of cancer-related deaths in the family. We understand the need for an oncology department. It will come up at the hospital in future,” added Jagat.
Hospital chairman Onkar Singh said initially, the idea was to start a small hospital where primary health facilities could be provided. “I was working on a new real estate project in Canada and its success motivated me to expand the hospital plan,” he added. Onkar Singh has been providing financial aid for education and healthcare in the state for the past 20 years.
The aim, Jagat said, was not to earn profit and “neither will any profit generated be used anywhere else except for expanding the services at the hospital”.
