HYDERABAD: Union Minister G Kishan Reddy has disputed Health Minister T Harish Rao’s claims of the State government handing over 201 acres of land on the AIIMS Bibinagar campus to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Affairs.
Kishan Reddy has cited a letter written by Rajesh Bhushan, secretary of the department, addressed to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar on October 9, 2021, where the former had written that the existing AIIMS building had not been properly handed over to the institute with statutory approvals and mandatory documents related to the structure, such as building permit, fire NOC and environmental clearance from the pollution control board.
Addressing the media at the BJP party office on Saturday, Kishan said that even a panchnama was not done for the building, which was originally constructed as an extension of NIMS at Bibinagar when Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister of erstwhile AP, but later became part of the AIIMS campus. Due to these issues, expansion plans for AIIMS were being delayed, he said.
Kishan also cited letters written by Amit Biswas, under secretary to Government of India, on August 30, 2019 and the then Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan, who wrote to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on December 3, 2019. Vardhan’s letter sought proposals with detailed project reports for establishment of medical colleges attached to district referral hospitals under phase-3 of the centrally sponsored scheme. Kishan said the request fell on deaf ears.