The Cancer Hospital and Research Centre that was part of the Mission 676 scheme of the government continues to be at the foundation stone stage four months after it was laid.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had declared that the project would be completed in two years. But the government was still probing various funding options, including the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, said activists who were part of the campaign for cancer centre led by the late jurist, V.R. Krishna Iyer.
Writer M.K. Sanoo said at a media conference here on Tuesday that it was the increasing number of cancer cases that had led to a call by Justice Krishna Iyer Movement for setting up an international-level cancer institute in the public sector. A demand for such an institute in the central Kerala region had been there for some time. The State had also in the previous budget earmarked Rs. 5 crore for the project.
However, recently, the State government declared that the cancer institute would come up under an annuity mode of financing, wherein a fixed amount would be provided in the annual budget for the work and had sought an expression of interest for the same.
Dr. N.K. Sanil Kumar, who was part of the campaign, expressed his concern over the PPP mode and said it would help only the private investors. The government was not considering other options of funding, he added. He said the District Co-operative Bank had evinced interest in funding the project.
The 12{+t}{+h}Five Year Plan had declared two national-level cancer institutes, of which work on a Rs 2,000-crore project is going on in Haryana. No southern State has been picked yet for the second such institute. The State could raise a claim to have the national institute here, said Dr. Sanil Kumar.
