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| Minister blames own ministry for hurdles in healthcare expansion |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Sep 03, 2010, 00:04 IST |
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Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi has blamed bureaucratic hurdles within his own ministry for the delay in fulfilling the Railway Ministry’s ambitious plan to set up healthcare facilities along the railway network across the country.
Six months after the Railway Ministry, headed by Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Health Ministry to allow the latter to develop healthcare facilities on the Railway land, nothing has moved in the health ministry side, Trivedi said.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry event on the launch of India Health Report 2010 here today, the minister said there was no reason for the delay in implementing this project as the location and land had been finalised by the railway ministry.
“The railway ministry is ready to hand over the locations to us. It is the health ministry that has not responded at all,” Trivedi said adding that lack of response comes in spite of his senior minister (Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad) showing interest in the project.
The Railways had entered into an agreement with the health ministry in January to set up diagnostic centres, super-speciality hospitals, medical colleges and nursing schools across the country.
The idea was to utilise the vast tracts of surplus land owned by the Railways to set up healthcare facilities.
While Railways were supposed to provide the land, infrastructure development was the responsibility of the ministry of health. State governments and private sector entities were supposed to invest in the project.
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