Not for the first time speaking in different voices, Ministers of the Hemant Soren Government are again at loggerheads and this time on setting up All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the State.
Opposing the proposal of Health Minister Rajendra Prasad Singh, who has mooted Bokaro as the site for AIIMS, his own Cabinet colleague lobin Hembrum has now come up with a suggestion that the prestigious medical institute of the country should be set up in Dumka, which happens to be the home constituency of Chief Minister Hemant Soren and also the heart of JMM’s stronghold Santhal Pargana.
“I vehemently oppose AIIMS at Bokaro. The place is already developed and has better medical facilities. Instead, Dumka is the remote area of the State and has too much of poverty. AIIMS should be built there only,” said Hembrum on Thursday while speaking to press persons.
The Pioneer just a day before reported about the decision of the Health Department in which 37 acres of land has already been identified by the Bokaro district administration at Muktapur village; falls under Chandankyari block of Chas sub-division. Rajendra Singh had pressed that the location would be central in nature for the people of Jharkhand.
The development took place in light of Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan’s letters written to chief ministers of 13 states, including Jharkhand for identifying suitable locations for setting up local incarnations of the most prestigious medical institute of the country.
“Dumka is also second capital of the State and people of the area face hardship in getting health facilities. I will talk to the Chief Minister in this regard and request him about this,” said Hembrum. Though, he had no concrete answers to why the matter was being raised before the media and not in the Cabinet meeting or inter-Departmental consultations.
Nevertheless, the obstruction is set to rock the possibility of the premier medical institute coming to the State, which would not be the lone case for Jharkhand. Certain political motives behind the controversy cannot be denied.