Centre to again write to Bengal on land for AIIMS

The location of the AIIMS-type hospital at Raigunj in West Bengal's North Dinajpur district would not be shifted and the state goverment would again be written to by the Centre for acquiring the land needed.
"We will again write to the West Bengal government for acquiring land at Raigunj and the Centre will pay the price," Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said today.
Asked whether the location would be shifted from Raigunj as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has insisted it come up at Kalyani in Nadia district close to Kolkata, Azad replied in the negative.

"The proposed hospital at Raigunj is need-based and not for any person or individual. The place does not have any good medical infrastructure and entire north Bengal will be benefitted," he told reporters.
Stating that everywhere in the country where such hospitals were set up land was given free by state governments, he said, "But in West Bengal, neither the previous Left Front government nor the present government is willing to acquire land, let alone give it free."
The Centre has decided to pay for the land cost estimated at Rs 15 crore by the Raigunj Zilla Parishad, while the cost of the construction of the hospital would be Rs 1000 crore, the minister said at the launch of a homeopathy book.

At present, six AIIMS-type hospitals were coming up at Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Orissa and Rajasthan.
He said that the Uttar Pradesh government had taken a cabinet decision to identify land for AIIMS which would be given free of cost.