Kerala’s much-anticipated and decades-long dream of having an All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-like institution on its soil was dashed yet again when the proposal found no mention in the Union Budget 2024-25 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23.
Also read: Budget 2024 LIVE, highlights
Unlike in the previous years, the anticipation this year that the project might finally come through was intense, particularly because of the presence of two Union Ministers of State from Kerala at the Centre, one of whom is the BJP’s first-ever elected MP from the State.
On July 22 too, the topic of approving an AIIMS-like institution for Kerala had been raised in Rajya Sabha by John Brittas, MP.
However, not just AIIMS, no major proposals for the nation’s health sector seemed to figure in the Union Budget 2024-25, other than the exemption of three more cancer drugs from customs duties.
The total allocation for the nation’s health sector in the Budget is ₹89,287 crore. The Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana has an allocation of ₹7,500 crore and the health coverage under the scheme has been extended to accredited social health activists (ASHA), anganwadi workers and helpers.
AIIMS was established as an autonomous institution in New Delhi under the Act of Parliament in 1956 and is today the apex medical institution in the country.
It is only after 2012 that the Centre began setting up AIIMS-like institutions across the country, under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), a scheme announced in 2003, with the objectives of correcting regional imbalances in the availability of affordable/reliable tertiary healthcare services as well as augmenting facilities for quality medical education in the country.
There are today 22 AIIMS-like institutions in the country, some of which are operational, while the rest are in various phases of development.
A political and emotional issue
Over the past decade, having an AIIMS-like institution has become a political as well as emotional issue for Kerala and the feeling that the Centre was wilfully denying the State its due has been building.
The issue took on much political colour and was a much-debated topic of discussion in the State in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as well as the post-election debates, with many prominent MPs engaging in a war of words over “unfulfilled promises.”
While the State government seemed to have finalised Kinalur in Kozhikode as the ideal location to establish an AIIMS-like institution, Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad and lately, Kasaragod have all been vying for the privilege.
Health Minister Veena George had informed the State Assembly in June that the Centre had accepted Kerala’s choice of Kinalur in Kozhikode to be the site for the proposed AIIMS-like institution but that the final approval on the project was still being awaited.
Published - July 23, 2024 04:55 pm IST
