New Delhi: A heated debate was held yesterday between Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and DMK MPs in the Lok Sabha regarding the Madurai AIIMS issue.
During question time in the Lok Sabha, DMK MP DR Balu questioned, “How many medical colleges have been started in the country without basic facilities? How many of the medical colleges laid foundation stones by the Prime Minister are yet to be started.”
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya responded to this and said:
Opposition MPs are politicizing the Madurai AIIMS issue. Classes have started in AIIMS College, Madurai. Students are studying. Only the infrastructure facility is not established there. But opposition parties are spreading wrong information.
The state government did not allocate the land in time to set up AIIMS Medical College in Madurai. This project is implemented with the financial support of Japan International Cooperative Corporation. The company representatives could not come to Madurai for the last 2 years. Project cost has increased. So far an allocation of Rs.19 crore has been made.
We have given all the information to the opposition MPs. But beyond that they do politics. If they do politics, the problem will not be solved. I urge you not to politicize the health sector.
Work for AIIMS College in Madurai is in progress. You have to cooperate with this. A good medical college will be built at a cost of Rs.1,900 crore. I will not allow medical colleges to function without adequate facilities and infrastructure. Some medical colleges in Tamil Nadu do not have basic facilities. Admission will not be given to those colleges. Action will be taken if medical colleges are run without infrastructural facilities.
Minister Mansukh Mandaviya spoke thus.
DMK MPs strongly objected to this. They gathered in the center of the House and accused the minister of speaking in a threatening manner. A heated debate between the minister and the DMK MPs led to the crisis.
Then Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla intervened and pacified the DMK MPs. He said, “Minister Mandavia said that he will not allow medical colleges to function without basic facilities. There is nothing wrong with that. He spoke in general.”
The DMK MPs who did not accept the Lok Sabha Speaker’s compromise continued to chant. In the end, DMK and Congress MPs walked out of the Lok Sabha.