The Rae Bareli authorities burnt the mid-night oil just to keep the words of the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav regarding handing over of land for setting up an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) like hospital in Sonia Gandhi’s Parliamentary constituency.
In a huff, the authorities transferred some portion of the land to the Health Department on late Monday night for setting up an AIIMS like medical institution in Rae Bareli. A day before, Chief Minister Akilesh Yadav went on to claim that the entire land has been handed over to the Centre and delay in setting up was just on part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
Sources confirmed that the local authorities in Rae Bareli transferred around 39.5 hectare of land of the Nandganj Sihohi Sugar Mill on the name of the state health department for the medical institution after opening the office throughout on Monday night. '' The officials had to open the registry office in the night to transfer the land after a directive from lucknow,'' a senior official revealed on condition of anonymity. However, still the Samajwadi Party government has not started process to acquire around 20 hectares of farmers land needed for setting up the medical institution. ``The state government will have to acquire 13.67 hectare of land of the farmers in Sultanpuraima village and 6.16 hectare of Dariyapur village", the official added.
It may be mentioned that on June 9 during a press conference here at lucknow, Akhilesh Yadav had questioned Congress for delay in setting up an AIIMS like medical institute in Rae Bareli, the parliamentary constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. ``You should ask Congress and UPA government that why are they delaying the project when we have given required land free of cost for the medical institute,`' Akhilesh asked the media persons while replying to their queries. Akhilesh further said that that the earlier BSP government had refused to give the land for the purpose but Samajwadi Party government immediately handed over the required land and there should not be any delay.
UP government in February last had had decided to provide land free of cost to the Centre for setting up an AIIMS-like medical institute in Rae Bareli. The Centre had proposed to set up the institute in 2008, but the then Mayawati government did not allot the land objecting to its location.