The Centre on Thursday told the Madras High Court Bench here that it was for the State Government to identify and offer a suitable location as per the specifications of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), for establishment of a centre of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and that the process was under way.
The submission was made in a counter affidavit filed before a Division Bench of Justices A. Selvam and N. Authinathan, who were seized of two public interest litigation petitions, one seeking a direction to the Centre to declare the name of the district where it had planned to establish the institute and another to establish it in Madurai.
‘Three choices sought’
In the counter affidavit, signed in New Delhi on May 9 and served on the petitioners on Thursday, K. Vinod Kumar, Under Secretary, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said the proposal to establish AIIMS in Tamil Nadu was announced by the Union Finance Minister in the general budget 2014-15.
The Minister also wrote to the State Government to identify “three or four” alternative locations for setting up the institute.
It was made clear that about 200 acres of land with road connectivity and supply of water and electricity should be made available to the Centre as such facilities were essential for a superspecialty hospital-cum-medical college.
“The PMSSY Division of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has requested for a site selection of new AIIMS through a challenge method evolved by the Committee of Secretaries for site selection of new AIIMS and the division is waiting for the response of the State of Tamil Nadu,” the Under Secretary said.
Claiming that the plea of one of the petitioners, R.K. Basker of Madurai, to establish the institute in Madurai was not only premature, but also not justified, Mr. Kumar said. “The work of setting up AIIMS in Tamil Nadu is under process and the State government has to select the appropriate place,” he added.
When the case came up for hearing on Thursday, the judges directed the High Court Registry to post it for hearing to July 12 along with the other PIL petition filed recently by Madurai-based activist K.K. Ramesh, who had sought a direction to the Centre to announce the district where the institute would be established.
