By Firstdespatch Desk Oct 07, 2024
Agartala, Oct 7 (FD) The opposition Congress and the state government are at loggerhead over the alleged sanction of government lands to a medical group for setting up a super-specialty hospital in West Tripura district.
Congress MLA and former Health Minister in the cabinet of the former BJP Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb cabinet said, “I have now come to know the truth. There is an office of the Agricultural and Rural Development Department at Bodhjungnagar, where the department was forced to provide a no-objection certificate (NOC) for a 28-acre plot of land to be handed over to the district magistrate. The real reason for this is to allot the land to the private hospital that provided doctors for the surgery,” he alleged.
He said that there is a standing government decision that land can be leased to private parties for 33 years, stating that no government rule permits the allotment of land to private entities without a tender process.
However, he also alleged that some sorts of corruptions are there otherwise lands cannot be given in this manner. Barman also demanded clarification from the Chief Minister.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sushanta Chowdhury, said there is no question of misleading the public and tarnish the Government’s reputation.
Chowdhury said, government has a policy to provide land to investors interested in sectors such as agriculture, industry, health, and education.
“In such special cases, tender or expression of interest is not required as per the rules,” he said.
Chowdhury said, Shija Hospitals and Research Institute, which has been operational since 1985 and runs a 350-bed super-specialty hospital in Imphal. He said the hospital expressed interest in establishing a super-specialty facility in the state in December last year.
“This hospital is a highly reputed and first of its kind in the North-East. We had earlier provided15-acre land to Cachar Cancer Hospital for a hospital at Dharmanagar in North Tripura. The former Left Front government provided land to ILS Hospitals at Agartala. Hospitals, super-speciality hospitals, colleges, and universities will naturally come up in the state during our development journey,” he said.
Chowdhury also pointed out that this group will also invest Rs 900-crore investment in the next few years.
“We have decided to provide unused land land lying with the ARD at Bodhjungnagar. The DM and collector approached the ARD director for an NOC and the director forwarded the file to the minister concerned via a secretary, after which the NOC was provided for the land through the revenue department. Approval from the cabinet can be produced after the entire process is over,” Chowdhury said. FD JK