Yogi reviews Rae Bareli AIIMS project, favours early start

LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has started efforts to expedite work on the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Rae Bareli, the Lok Sabha seat of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Yogi on Thursday reviewed the implementation of the project at a high-level meeting which was attended by senior officers from the Centre and the state government.

“Early implementation of the project will provide much-needed relief to the people,” the CM said.

A senior officer, who attended the meeting, said: “We hope to start the OPD in AIIMS at Rae Bareli by July. The revised cost estimate for the project was approved on June 22 last year and the intake for MBBS courses is likely to start next year. Rae Bareli’s AIIMS project is expected to be completed by March 2020.”

The Rae Bareli AIIMS is one of the dream projects of Sonia Gandhi and she has been consistently following its implementation.

She had even written to union minister for health JP Nadda on April 1, 2015 requesting him to expedite the clearances for early start of the project approved by the union cabinet (CCEA) in February 2009.

The OPD at Rae Bareli AIIMS, which was started as a temporary arrangement in 2014, was gradually closed down after the Narendra Modi government took over

at the Centre.

“The OPD was started in a temporary accommodation and was closed down in the absence of any infrastructure and faculty,” the officer said.

Yogi’s move to review the progress of Rae Bareli AIIMS assumes significance in the backdrop the BJP’s attempts to make forays into Congress bastions Rae Bareli and Amethi ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress has often accused the Centre and the UP government of indulging in political vendetta and giving a stepmotherly treatment to the two constituencies.

The Congress workers had recently held a demonstration in Rae Bareli demanding early completion of the project and accused the Modi government of bringing down the capacity of AIIMS from 960 to 600 beds.

The CM also reviewed the implementation of AIIMS in Gorakhpur, the seat of Gorakhnath temple of which he is the chief priest.

“AIIMS Gorakhpur will also be complete by March 2020 and the intake for MBBS course will start in 2019. A separate power feeder will be provided to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the institute,” another officer said.

He said the work of super-specialty facilities in Allahabad, Jhansi, Meerut and Gorakhpur medical colleges had been completed while the super-specialty facility would begin at Kanpur and Agra medical colleges soon.