Site of Jaiprakash Narayan All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Phulwarisharif

Patna, June 29: Patna High Court today directed the central government to make Jaiprakash Narayan All India Institute of Medical Sciences (JPNAIIMS) at Phulwarisharif, Patna, operational by October 2 next year.

While hearing a PIL, a division bench of Justice P.C. Verma and Justice A.K. Trivedi also constituted a three-member committee, comprising petitioner-advocate M.P. Gupta, additional advocate-general (AAG) Lalit Kishore and Centre’s counsel Vinay Kumar Pandey, to inspect the progress of the hospital being built on the lines of All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Delhi.

The committee, which would also monitor the construction work, would hand over its report every month to the health secretaries of both Union and state government besides submitting the same report to the high court.

The court passed the direction while hearing a PIL filed by Council for Protection of Public Rights and Welfare general secretary and advocate M.P. Gupta, seeking expeditious completion of the project. The project, scheduled for completion within two years of laying the foundation stone on January 3, 2004, is still under construction.

The state government would extend all kind of support required by the central government for the construction of the hospital and making it functional within the new time-frame of October 2, 2012, the court further said in its order.

In a warning to the central government, the court gave the peitioner the liberty to file a contempt petition if the government failed to adhere to the order for completion of the hospital within the stipulated time schedule.

The court posted the matter for next hearing on August 1, 2012, two months prior to the date fixed by the court for making the hospital operational. In the next hearing, the Centre would give the final report with regard to the status of the project.

Slamming the authorities, the court observed that the government makes promises to the people but it (the construction work) is implemented only after the intervention of the court.

The court kept the matter pending after advocate Gupta, who was assisted by Brajesh Kumar, pointed out that if the court decides to dispose of the petition, then the pace of work could be hampered as both the central and the state governments might go into deep slumber. “The work on this project was started only after its (court’s) intervention,” he said.

Notably, the Centre, in February this year, had filed an affidavit through the Union health and family welfare secretary before the high court, giving an undertaking that the construction of Rs 284-crore JPNAIIMS would be completed by September 2012.

Similarly, the construction of the medical college and residential premises will be over by November 2011 and June 2011 respectively.

Rs 160 crore and Rs 29 crore would be spent on the construction of the college and the residential premises, the affidavit said.

The foundation stone of JPAIIMS was laid by the then vice-president, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, on January 3, 2004, under the Pradhanmantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana.

“On the occasion, the then Union health and family welfare minister, Sushma Swaraj, had said that the hospital would become operational within two years but till date it has not been completed despite the Centre’s assurance that it would become operational in 2009,” Gupta said, adding that the deadline was again extended to 2010 and then to 2011 but the work has still not been completed.

After the court’s order, the state government provided 100 acres of land in Phulwarisharif with connecting road, electricity and water connection for the project.

The petitioner contended that delay in the completion of the hospital was not only badly affecting the common people, who had to go outside the state for treatment, but also depriving them of quality healthcare at reasonable cost.