MARGAO
Health Minister Vishwaji Rane and TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai may have to face the same old question once again from Saxttikars in particular and people of South Goa in general: When exactly will the government commission the long-delayed district hospital for South Goa at Margao?
This question assumes significance as Hospicio authorities have no knowledge of the new date set by the government for the commissioning of the district hospital. In fact, a Hospicio doctor told The Goan that doctors and para-medical staff attached to the 150-year-old hospital are yet to receive any communique to pack their bags and brace up for shifting to the district hospital.
That’s not all. When The Goan called up Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) Managing Director, Srinet Kothawale, to shed light on the commissioning of the district hospital project, he only said that the GSIDC will complete all ongoing civil works and complete the hospital in all respects only by December 31 “ indicating that commissioning of the project on Goa Liberation Day December 19 this year is out of question. Official sources in the know pointed out that even if the GSIDC honours its commitment to complete the ongoing civil works by December 31, the hospital isn’t going to be ready for commissioning immediately. Reason: The GSIDC has sought time to complete other works, including laying of the medical gas line, a separate project, which was not part of the original tender.
While the GSIDC has maintained that the medical gas project may be complete by February 2019, the agency, however, has submitted in the High Court via an undertaking to give a buffer time till March 2019 to complete work on the hospital “ again indicating that project will be ready in all respects only around the first quarter of 2019.
Kothawale, however, said that the question of procurement of the medical equipments rests with the Director of Health Services and the GSIDC has no role to play. And, not to mention the recruitment of doctors, consultants and para-medics, which is expected to consume a lot of time, sources added.
That both the Health Minister and the TCP Minister owe an explanation to the people of Salcete and South Goa stems from the fact that while the duo have been proactive in setting up a mechanism to set up state-of-the-art laboratory to check the quality of fish sold in the markets, nothing has been heard on the commissioning of the district hospital till date.
It is a sheer coincidence that the Health Minister had twice come down to Margao over the last one month in respect of issues concerning the formalin in fish row. He and the TCP Minister were part of the high-level committee meeting held at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex on the formalin issue, but a meeting proposed by the Health Minister right at the district hospital project site with the TCP Minster and the MLAs from Salcete is yet to take place till date.
The district hospital has already missed several deadlines since work on the project was initiated during the Congress regime headed by then CM Digambar Kamat eight years ago. The previous Parsekar-led BJP government had planned to commission the project exactly two years ago in December 2017, but in vain.
