Patna: The proposed second All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bihar has become the subject of a heated political dispute, with the Union health ministry rejecting the new site offered by the state government in Darbhanga for its construction.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led central government, in a letter to the Bihar government — dated 26 May — has called the land “unfit”, the Janata Dal (United) government in Bihar has blamed the Centre for “delaying” the second AIIMS.
The letter, which came to light Monday, is dated 26 May and has been accessed by ThePrint.
Following the Union government’s rejection of the proposed land, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, speaking to the media at an event Monday, hinted that the state government will not be allotting another piece of land for the project.
“Nahi banana hai toh nahi banao. Humko kya? Jab BJP sarkaar hategi, toh achha kaam hoga (If you don’t want to build it, don’t. How does it affect us? When the BJP government is voted out, that’s when good work will be done),” he said.
Rajiv Ranjan, national president of the JD(U), told ThePrint, “It is a deliberate attempt by the Centre to defer the construction of the second AIIMS in Bihar.”
“They are presuming that they will win in the next Lok Sabha and assembly polls in Bihar and the second AIIMS will be built with their government in both places. We know that the BJP is going to be defeated in Lok Sabha polls and once our government comes, we will the build the second AIIMS within 2 years,” he added.
Ranjan also pointed out that the state government had already acquired over 181 acres for the AIIMS at a cost of more than Rs 300 crores.
The BJP, meanwhile, has attributed the delay of the Rs 2,000 crore project to CM Nitish’s inflexibility on the matter, to “deny PM Narendra Modi the credit”.
Speaking to ThePrint, BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi said, “For two years, CM Nitish Kumar said that Darbhanga Medical College & Hospital (DMCH) should be converted to AIIMS. Later, when they were told that an old college could not be converted into a new AIIMS, the Bihar CM promised to give 150 acres of land of DMCH for the same and even acquired 82 acres.”
“There was a tug of war between Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and JD(U) leaders to take credit for AIIMS in Darbhanga. Later, land was acquired at Sobhan located on the outskirts of the town near the East-West corridor. The land, however, was found unfit for the purpose,” he added.
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‘High project costs, time consuming’
In a letter to Pratyaya Amrit, additional chief secretary of government of Bihar in charge of health department, Rajesh Bhushan, secretary, Union health ministry wrote that the land offered by the state government for construction of AIIMS, Darbhanga, was “unfit” and asked him to provide another suitable land for the same.
Bhushan added that a team of officials from the ministry had visited the site proposed by the government on 27 April this year and found it to be “about 7 metres down from the approach road i.e. Shobhan By-pass to Ekmi Ghat Darbhanga, along with many big and small deep dug land pockets present in the site where earth filling of more than 10 metres will be required (sic)”.
According to the team, he added, filling and compacting the total area would require “a huge quantity” of good soil that may not be found in or near Darbhanga, could lead to high project costs and prove to be a time-consuming process.
The team, the letter added, also pointed out that the existing soil has “swelling and shrinkage characteristics” and pose a serious threat to the built structure. It also noted possibility of water logging in the surrounding low-land area.
The promise and delay
Bihar got its first AIIMS in 2013 in Patna — seventh in the country.
It was late Union finance minister Arun Jaitley who announced a second AIIMS for Bihar during his budgetary speech in 2015-16.
This was followed by a tug of war between MLAs and MPs of Bhagalpur, Sahara and Darbhanga — all of whom wanted the AIIMS to be constructed in their respective towns. In 2020, Nitish announced that the AIIMS will be built in Darbhanga. However, the proposal to convert the old DMCH was opposed by its doctors. Moreover, the Union health ministry said old medical colleges cannot be converted into AIIMS.
It was in April this year that the government offered land at the outskirts of Darbhanga, but with the health ministry rejecting it, AIIMS becomes one more issue the JD(U) can blame the BJP-led central government for as the 2024 Lok Sabha elections draw closer.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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