In a major embarrassment to the Government, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Bijayshree Routray on Tuesday admitted that no nursing home is functioning on the plot, which was allotted for the purpose in his wife’s name at subsidised rates two decades ago.
Dr Jyoti Routray, wife of the Minister was among the 44 individuals and organisations who have been provided plots at a subsidised rates in prime locations in the capital city to set up either hospitals, nursing homes or cardiac hospitals during 1981-2009, is found to be a violator.
In the wake of the land and house allotment scam in the State, the Health Department had ordered an enquiry to know the status of the plot and purposes. But enquiries revealed that 13 out of 44 allottees have failed to set up any such healthcare units in the respective lands while 10 are still coming up.
“My wife is a simple MBBS doctor and since another nursing home namely Panda Nursing Home is located near to my wife’s plot and specialists from various fields are coming there, patients prefer to visit it. Hence, after a few years my wife closed the nursing home and now we staying there,” said the Minister.
During enquiry by the Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET), it was found that only 21 units have come up in the State capital against an allotment of 44 lands made in between 1985 and 2009.“We have informed the Health and GA department about the non-existence of 13 such institutions against whom lands were allotted to set up healthcare units” informed DMET Joint Director Dr Umakant Satapathy.