Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj Gen (Retd) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri extended best wishes and congratulated the residents of the State on the informal inauguration of OPD (Out Patients Department) at Rishikesh-based AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences).
He claimed that former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee had approved the project after considering the tough geographical conditions of the State. It is to be noted that then Health Minister Sushma Swaraj had performed rituals on the land in 2003, where AIIMS was constructed and was set goal to building in three years but due to the callous approach of the UPA Government, it took around decade to bring the project to the ground level.
According to him, UPA Government had failed to sanction funds on time resulted the project was delayed. He also claimed that he took the matter seriously in lok Sabha during 2004-05. Khanduri said that the BJP-led State Government had also approved two guest houses at New Delhi-based AIIMS for patients’ relatives during its regime in 2007.
He said that the UPA had failed to take concrete measures to complete the project in the given time frame in the last nine year and finally, the residents of Uttarakhand would be benefited as the OPD starts in the hospital.