AIIMS issue: Jaya calls for Anbumani's removal

Chennai, July 10 (UNI) Describing the controversy surrounding the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as a ''national shamed,'' AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa today called for the removal of Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss as he ''lacked the qualification'' to hold the post.

''It will be good for the nation if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh removed him from the post. He has no qualification either age-wise or experience-wise to be a Minister of Cabinet status in a great nation like India,'' she told a press conference here.

Pointing out to the Delhi High Court's stay on the dismissal of AIIMS Director P Venugopal, she said Dr Anbumani ''neither had the knowledge nor the maturity'' required for a Union Minister.

Ms Jayalalithaa also criticised Union Communication and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran for ''functioning as a state Minister''.

Stating that the Union Minister was spending most of the time in Chennai, she said Mr Maran did not seem to have realised that he was the Minister for the whole of India and there were other states in the country other than Tamil Nadu.

The Centre's decision to ''put on hold'' the disinvestment in the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) was a victory for the unity and determination of the employees, she said.

To a question, Ms Jayalalithaa said she was not in a haste to form a third front at the national level.

UNI AKN MA ND1548