KASARGOD: In an ‘unprecedented order,’ the state government has “allowed” the local self-government bodies in Kasaragod district to donate to a cooperative hospital being set up by CPM leaders in Kanhangad.
The order from the local self-government department says Kanhangad Cooperative Hospital needs financial help and the local bodies can donate from their ‘own fund’ for the cause, with the approval of their boards or councils.
The order says the district panchayat can donate Rs 1 crore, Kanhangad municipality can donate Rs 2 crore, the other two municipalities (Kasaragod and Nileshwar) and the 38 grama panchayats can donate Rs 50 lakh each, and the six block panchayats can donate Rs 25 lakh.
If all the local bodies — 38 grama panchayats, three municipalities, six block panchayats and the district panchayat — pitch in as per these slabs, the hospital would pocket Rs 24.5 crore. But the UDF has condemned the government order and called it a blatant misuse of power. So it is unlikely to receive any funding from UDF-controlled local bodies.
But the LDF controls 19 grama panchayats, two municipalities including Kanhangad, four of the six block panchayats and the district panchayat. If they dip into their ‘own fund’, the hospital can get up to Rs 14 crore. Minister for Local Self-Government M V Govindan, additional chief secretary of the department Sarada Muraleedharan and secretary Biju Prabhakar did not respond to phone calls.
CPM leader and the minister’s private secretary V P P Mustafa said the order was based on a request letter submitted by the hospital’s board seeking financial help and was not binding on the local bodies.
‘Govt misusing power to help CPM-backed hosp’
The slabs for donations were set by the hospital’s board and approved by the government.
Mustafa said such projects would generate jobs. “The local bodies are going beyond offering services to generating jobs. The government’s target is to create 1 lakh enterprises in a year, with a thrust on having at least one entrepreneur in one local body,” he said, adding that this order was in line with the government’s new policy.
But the UDF did not buy the explanation. “The government is misusing its power for the growth of cooperative societies controlled by the CPM,” said district Congress president P K Faisal. The government brought out the order to give legal cover to local bodies diverting people’s money, he said. If the cooperative society does not have money, it should raise it from people by giving them shares, he said. “The panchayat’s own fund is for the developmental projects for its people,” he said.
IUML leader and former district panchayat president A G C Basheer said the government’s order was unprecedented. “When the UDF was heading the government, it asked the local bodies in Malappuram district to contribute to the District Hospital in Manjeri. That was a government hospital and it is today a medical college hospital,” he said. “This is an unprecedented order,” Basheer said. Congressman C K Aravindakshan, president of Pullur-Periya grama panchayat, the only UDF-controlled local body near Kanhangad, said his local body was not inclined to donate to the hospital.