T.N. Health Minister reacts to Union Finance Minister’s statement on AIIMS, Madurai

TN Health Min. questions FM Sitharaman's claim of delay in AIIMS project; calls it a "blatant lie". Union govt. fully funded other AIIMS projects, except Madurai, which is funded by JICA loan. He urges Union govt. to fully fund Madurai AIIMS & take up works immediately.

Health Minister Ma. Subramanian on Thursday questioned Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after she held the State responsible for the delay in executing AIIMS project in Madurai.

“If the Tamil Nadu government delayed the land acquisition for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Thoppur, Madurai, how did the Prime Minister lay the foundation stone on January 27, 2019 and how did the Union government allot ₹15 crore for construction of a compound wall and complete it in January 2021?” the Minister asked.

The Union Minister, while speaking during the no-confidence motion debate in the Lok Sabha, said the budget for AIIMS, Madurai, increased from ₹1,200 crore to ₹1,900 crore as land acquisition was delayed by the Tamil Nadu government.

Mr. Subramanian called her statement a “blatant lie”. He told reporters that the previous AIADMK government transferred 222.47 acres of land for the project and submitted the land documents to the Union government. “There is no question of land acquisition as it was fully owned by the district administration. It only had to be transferred to the Union government,” he said.

After the foundation stone was laid, a team of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) inspected the land in February 2020. They took a decision to construct a compound wall for which the Union government allotted ₹15 crore, he said.

AIIMS, Madurai was among the seven institutions announced by the Union government in 2015. Three more AIIMS were announced in 2017 and one in 2019. The Minister said of this, some were already functional, while classes had commenced in some institutes and a few were under construction.

The Union government fully funded the construction of all the institutes, except AIIMS, Madurai for which JICA loan was the funding source, he said, questioning the bias towards Tamil Nadu. During a meeting with JICA officials in Japan, it was learned that the tender processes would be completed by the end of 2024 and construction would be completed by the end of 2028, he said. He added that like for other institutes, the Union government should fully fund the construction of AIIMS, Madurai and take up the works immediately.