Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Wednesday said that he would request the Centre to commence admission to the yet-to-be-established AIIMS in Madurai only after the construction of its buildings begins. The minister, along with Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan and other officials, will be meeting Union Health Minister Mansukh L Mandaviya on Thursday.

Several other demands, including allocation of vaccines to the State in proportion to its population, would be raised during the meeting, Subramanian said. The Union Health Ministry will also be requested to take a decision quickly to operationalise the Integrated Vaccine Complex (IVC) in Chengalpattu and supply raw material to Pasteur’s Institute of India in Coonoor for the production of Covid-19 vaccines. Subramanian was addressing media persons on the campus of the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMS) after receiving 1,000 oxygen concentrators from an NGO, Boomi.

On the Centre’s earlier proposal to start medical admission to the AIIMS, Subramanian said that only the compound wall of the AIIMS has been built so far; procedures for the fund and tender allocation for other constructions are yet to be completed. As such, commencing admission to the AIIMS now may not be a good proposition. The State delegation will also request the Centre to carry out inspections at the 11 new medical colleges in the State soon so that students can be admitted this year itself.