SHILLONG, APR 20: Meghalaya government on Friday assured that the construction work of the much-awaited government medical college at Tura in West Garo Hills District will start soon.
“We assure that the construction of the Tura medical college will start very soon,” health minister AL Hek said in his reply during the question hour in the Assembly which concluded here.
Hek informed that the estimated cost for the project is Rs 234.89 crore and the proposal was already sent to the finance department on February 15, this year for according the necessary sanction.
Earlier, the minister informed that the funding for the project is based on 90:10 ratio and the amount sanctioned by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India was Rs 51 crore.
Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma sought to know on the measures taken by the government to see that the construction work starts at the earliest and questioned the delay to accord sanction for the project even after two months.
Supplementing the minister’s reply, chief minister Conrad K Sangma said that the amount has actually gone up from an estimate of Rs 189 crore to Rs 234.89 crore.
“Therefore, the file has been sent to the finance department and there were elections and yes it has been a month now and we in fact reviewing the matter but I can assure you that it (accord sanction) will not take five years like before,” he said.
However, Mukul said that the delay of this project was due to “too much of politics” and urged everyone to refrain from playing politics on such important project.
At the same time giving the background on the matter, the former chief minister said that the five long years was taken was due to the fact that there has been huge encroachment in the Tura civil hospital complex which was identified as teaching hostel.
“Now this encroachment could not be cleared due to sheer politics and this is known to everybody in Garo Hills including the chief minister,” he said.
At this time, deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong interrupted and reminded the opposition leader that it is the question hour and said, “We don’t want lecture.”
When Mukul argued that there is need to know the background, Tynsong reacted by asking not to talk about the background since they are in the government they know said let us not break the convention we used to do during the question hour.
The leader of opposition in turn asked the deputy chief minister not to disturb him when he is framing the question upon which he went on to urged the government to show its seriousness on the matter since over 100 acres of land have been donated by the people for the project.
Earlier, NPP legislator from South Tura Agatha Sangma sought to know as to why was two foundation stones were laid for the project and the reason for the government not being serious to go beyond the stage of just laying these foundation stones.
To this, the health minister said the first foundation stone was laid for the old land identified for the project in 2012 and the second was for the new land on January 3, this year.
He said that project has to be shifted to the new site because the first one could not meet the norms relating to the distance as laid down by the MCI.
Criticizing the minister for not being able to give a proper explanation on the matter, Congress MLA from Rangsakona Zenith Sangma said the first site for the project should have been 10 km from the referral centre and that is why the department was asked to look for a new land.
By Our Reporter
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