HYDERABAD: It is official. The Centre has made a meagre financial allocation to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), Bibinagar, located on the city outskirts, proving right the allegations of neglect of the state by the Narendra Modi-led government levelled by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Congress against their political rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Ever since the Centre announced AIIMS for several states after 2014, the facility in Telangana state has got just Rs 23.85 crore. This is against the budgetary allocation of Rs 1,028 crore and the Centre wanted to make the facility fully operational by 2022.
According to details of 15 new AIIMS under construction approved for establishment after 2014, obtained under Right To Information Act by Inaganti Ravi Kumar, an RTI activist, AIIMS, West Bengal, received the highest funding of Rs 967 crore against Rs 1,754 crore for obvious reasons. The AIIMS, Mangalagiri, in Andhra Pradesh, received Rs 879 crore out of the allocated Rs 1,618 crore.
The AIIMS established in other states which received considerable allocations were Maharashtra (Rs 945 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 755 crore), Punjab (Rs 668 crore), Himachal Pradesh (Rs 858 crore), Assam (Rs 435 crore), Jharkhand (Rs 380 crore) and Jammu (Rs 370 crore).
The BJP leaders from Telangana state sought to defend the record, saying that higher allocations in other states were due to the requirement of construction of buildings whereas in Telangana state the AIIMS was located in buildings already constructed for the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences by the Congress government in combined Andhra Pradesh.
Union health minister Harsh Vardhan went on record in the Lok Sabha in last March that there would be no dearth of funds. But his promise could fetch only Rs 15 crore in the current fiscal in addition to Rs 5 crore which had been released as per milestones.
A few months ago, G. Kishan Reddy, minister of state for home, visited the campus and announced the Centre’s grandiose plan of expanding the facility from the current 50 acres to 150 acres with more facilities.
“The Centre has been neglecting Bibinagar AIIMS for a long time. We handed over the required buildings to the Centre in time but it failed to start full-scale operations even today. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has been pursuing with the Centre for adequate funds for the last seven years but in vain,” said G. Jagadish Reddy, energy minister and in-charge of undivided Nalgonda district.
