MARGAO
As the issue over the leasing out of the South Goa district hospital to host a private medical college refused to die down, Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai on Sunday asserted that Margao MLA Digambar Kamat needs to clarify whether the project was mooted to provide the best of medical facilities to the people of South Goa or to use a portion of the hospital for a private medical college.
Sardesai said Kamat’s clarification is a must in the prevailing circumstances when the government headed by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane are hell-bent on getting the private medical college in the South district hospital.
For, the Fatorda MLA pointed out that the South Goa district hospital project was mooted and executed during the five-year stint of Digambar Kamat as the chief minister during the Congress rule.
“As far as I know, the South district hospital was never designed and planned for a private medical college. But, the present government wants to set up the private medical college at the hospital”, he said, while speaking to the media on the sidelines of a function held to distribute fruit-bearing and medicinal plants in Fatorda.
Sardesai added: “The BJP government says that the NITI Aayog has recommended setting up of private medical colleges in district hospitals. This is a general recommendation and not specific to Goa or South Goa. In that case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing for hospitals across the country on the lines of AIIMS. Why is the Chief Minister and the Health Minister not inviting AIIMS to South Goa when the basic infrastructure is ready.”
The Fatorda MLA has further demanded to know whether any citizen or representatives of the people have ever asked for a private medical college at the district hospital.
Saying the government is trying to bulldoze with the private medical college at the hospital, Sardesai has warned of an agitation if the government does not drop the proposal.
Meanwhile, the Fatorda MLA has asserted that Goa Foundation cannot be termed as a fraud when the NGO has helped the government to earn revenue amounting to thousands of crores on mining.
The Fatorda MLA has also promised to take up in the ongoing Assembly session the issue raised by the locals of Loutolim that the panchayat has not received any revenue from the Industrial Development Corporation.
“I have moved a calling attention motion wherein Industries Minister Mauvin Godinho will reply. If revenue has reached the Bhoma panchayat, which has jurisdiction over the Kundaim Industrial estate, Loutolim panchayat should also receive revenue from the Verna IDC,” he said.
