Women among hundreds of Hamirpur residents on Wednesday held a protest against the closure of a charitable hospital run by Radha Soami Satsang Beas in Bhota area here.

Raising slogans demanding the continuation of medical services at the charitable hospital, the villagers of the adjoining villages have decided to hold protests from 11 am to 4 pm daily over the failure of the state government to transfer the land of the hospital.

The villagers on Monday held a demonstration after the sect put up a notice on the hospital’s main gate informing people that it will not be able to give its services from December 1.

The Radha Soami Satsang Beas has been approaching the state government to transfer the hospital’s land to its sister organisation but is facing some issues under the Land Ceiling Act.

The request for land transfer was made to obtain GST exemption in the purchase of machinery and other equipment to upgrade the hospital facilities.

Located in the foothills of Himalayas, the 75-bed hospital in Hamirpur-Shimla highway gives free medical facilities to patients and has been running since 2000. It caters to lakhs of people of over 900 villages in its 15 km radius.

Hospital administrator Colonel Jaggi (retired) said a notice has been put up on the gate following the orders received from the sect management. As of now, no written assurance has been received from the state government, he said.

The protestors were also upset over the levying of GST on hospital services despite the fact that the trust was rendering free medical services and demanded a written assurance or notification from the state government that the hospital would not be closed.

BJP MLAs Inder Dutt Lakahnpal and Ashish Sharma visited the spot and held talks with the management as well as protestors, who staged a dharna on the main road outside the hospital.

They urged the protestors not to resort to road blockade and continue their agitation peacefully.

The road was cleared of within minutes and the villagers were asked to protest peacefully. Police force was present at the spot and urged them not to stop the free movement of traffic.

The MLAs said it was up to the state government to take immediate action to end the stalemate. There was no hitch in transferring the land in the name of the charitable trust but the dilly delaying attitude of the state government was responsible for this.

On Monday, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said the sect wishes to give the land of the charitable hospital to its sister organisation and the state government is contemplating to bring an ordinance for making provision in the Himachal Pradesh Ceiling on Land Holding Act, 1972 to transfer the land.