Explain criteria for AIIMS allocation, Centre directed
KOCHI: Coming down heavily on the Central government over the delay in establishing an AIIMS in the state, the Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to explain the criteria applied for selecting a state for setting up an All India Institute of Medical Sciences under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) scheme.
The Central government informed the court that 22 new AIIMS are being established in different states and Union Territories across the country. Out of the 22 AIIMS, 18 have already become functional, while the remaining four are at various stages of construction.
At present, the ministry is focusing on the full-scale operationalisation of the recently established AIIMS and the completion of the ongoing construction of the remaining four institutes under the PMSSY scheme.
When a batch of petitions pertaining to the establishment of AIIMS came up for hearing, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Soumen Sen orally observed that the Central government cannot keep the decision regarding the establishment of AIIMS in the state pending indefinitely.
“What criteria were applied by the Central government? Why have no steps been taken so far as the state of Kerala is concerned?” the court asked the counsel for the Centre.
The court noted that with respect to the establishment of an AIIMS in Kerala, the chief minister was requested in June 2014 to identify three to four alternative locations for setting up the institute under the PMSSY scheme.
In response to the communication, the Government of Kerala, in June 2016, identified land at Kinaloor in Kozhikode belonging to the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), land near the open jail in Neyyattinkara, land belonging to the Government Medical College in Kottayam, and property belonging to HMT in Ernakulam.
Considering all the factors, including availability of land, the state government concluded that the land at Kinaloor was suitable for establishing the AIIMS.
Meanwhile, the Centre on Wednesday submitted that the establishment of a new AIIMS in any state requires a policy decision by the Union government in consultation with all stakeholders.
