While the construction of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai is yet to make progress even after seven years, Kalaignar Centenary Super Speciality Hospital was completed within 15 months, said Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Thursday.
Inaugurating the 1,000-bedded Kalaignar Centenary Super Speciality Hospital at Guindy in Chennai, he said the people of Tamil Nadu knew the difference between those, who genuinely designed schemes for the benefit of people and those, who announced schemes only to deceive.
Taking a dig at the proposal for constructing AIIMS in Madurai by (Union government) for which even the second brick is not up as yet, he said, “This [Kalaignar] hospital will save the lives of people for several years. If left to us, we could construct a hospital like this one every year. Tamil Nadu is a State with superior medical infrastructure.”
Referring to several medical schemes announced by former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and that of the erstwhile AIADMK regimes, Mr. Stalin said the DMK government has been continuing all schemes “without any politcal angst”. “That’s the path Kalaignar has guided us into,” he said. As of now, Tamil Nadu has 36 government medical colleges and about 5,050 MBBS seats and remained a pioneer in the country, the Chief Minister said.
“We will be interrupted whenever we intend to benefit Tamil Nadu and the Tamil people. People divert us to prevent such benefits. But we will not be diverted. We will continue in our goal to serve the people,” Mr. Stalin said.
Recalling an incident in January 1975 when the then President Fakruddin Ali Ahmed had accepted to attend a function for releasing a book of his father, Mr. Stalin said: “In the eleventh hour, like it has happened now, some stopped the President from attending the event. But Kalaignar did not worry about it”.
The State government had earlier this week issued orders for creating a total of 757 posts of various categories over the establishment of the 1,000-bedded Kalaignar Centenary Super Speciality Hospital. While 249 of these posts would be regular, 508 would be on contract-basis and the remaining through outsourcing through an agency fixed by the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation.
Meanwhile, 30 Casualty Medical Officer / Emergency Medical Officer posts in Kilpauk, Dindigul and Krishnagiri Medical College and Hospitals and 60 posts of staff nurse were surrendered so that equal number of posts could be created for Kalaignar Centenary Super Speciality Hospital. The government had also permitted authorities to utilise the services of 32 surplus personnel available in Government Medical College and Hospital in Cuddalore district.
