Congress Legislative Party leader in UP Legislative Council, Deepak Singh, attacked the Centre and Lok Sabha member from Amethi, Smriti Irani, for the cancellation of permission for a medical college in Amethi.
“We have been saying from day one that this Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre has no intention of opening a medical college in Amethi. I also raised this issue in the Legislative Council in the last session and the government replied that there was no plan of opening a medical college in Amethi,” the Congress MLC said.
Singh added that soon after the disclosure, the BJP government used the Amethi administration to launch a propaganda on social media that a medical college would be opened on the special initiatives taken up by local MP, Smriti Irani.
“Now the lie spread by Smriti Irani is before everyone,” Singh said, citing the Union government’s refusal to sanction a medical college for Amethi as it failed to meet the laid norms.
“All medical institutes and other establishments opened in Amethi came up when Rahul Gandhi was representing the constituency. But ever since Irani became the MP (from Amethi) and BJP regimes took over at the Centre and in UP, at least half a dozen major projects, whose foundations were laid by Rahul Gandhi, were either cancelled or shifted out of Amethi.
“The BJP regime does not want to launch any big project in Amethi as a political vendetta as the Gandhi family is closely linked to the district,” the Congress leader said.
“MP from Amethi, Smriti Irani, should tender an apology to the residents of Amethi for spreading rumours about the medical college or Congress workers would go to the people and expose how she cheated them,” said Singh.
Meanwhile, in the absence of Irani, her public relations officer in Amethi, Vijay Gupta, claimed that the plan of a proposed medical college there was not completely ruled out. He said that other possibilities for opening a medical college would be looked into.
“The promise made by Smriti Didi will be fulfilled by her and she will also comply with her assurance,” Gupta said.
Earlier, the state government had planned to upgrade Amethi district hospital to a full-fledged medical college but the Union Health Ministry turned down the proposal as it failed to meet the laid norms.
Sources said that the permission was denied especially as the district hospital at Tiloi, which was to be upgraded, was too far from the district headquarters.