Parrikar returns to Goa after discharge from AIIMS

PANAJI: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday returned to the state, after being discharged from Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where he was being treated for advanced pancreatic cancer.

Parrikar arrived in Goa by a special light and headed straight to his private residence, near Panaji, where a government-operated ambulance and a medical crew were kept on a stand-by.

The former union Defence Minister was ferried, under a police escort, by an ambulance from the airport and was taken inside his residence with the help of a stretcher.

Parrikar was admitted to AIIMS on Sept.15. He has been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, New York and now Delhi for the last seven months.

On Friday, Parrikar held a meeting of his cabinet ministers and senior members of the BJP State Executive Committee at AIIMS.

The Congress has been demanding Parrikar’s resignation on account of his prolonged illness and his absence from ofice.

“Parrikar’s health condition deteriorated in the early morning on Sunday and he was shifted to intensive care unit (ICU),” the AIIMS oficial said.

“Later he was released from the ICU and also discharged from the hospital,” the oficial added.

The opposition Congress has been demanding Parrikar’s resignation on account of his prolonged illness.

Parrikar should have stayed back at the AIIMS in New Delhi and nursed himself back to health instead of returning to the coastal state, a Minister said here on Sunday.