Ramadoss using AIIMS money to fight director, neglect research: BJP

New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) Health Minsiter Anbumoni Ramadoss came under severe criticism in the Rajya Sabha today with BJP charging him with making his ''personal differences'' with AIIMS director P Venugopal a ''dispute for the government'' and using the institutes' fund to remove its director.

Participating in the discussion on the working of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, BJP leader and Chief Whip S S Ahluwalia said that when Dr Ramadoss took over as the Health Minister, people were happy that now a qualified doctor has been given the charge of ministry.

However, they were quickly disappointed as the Minister made his personal differences with the AIIMS Director a dispute for the government which became a matter of concern even for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Prime Minister constituted a Committee to look into affairs of AIIMS, he pointed out and lamented that the fate of the Valiathan committee was not yet known as its report was not placed before Parliament and nothing was about its recommendations or their implementation.

In this fight of Minister Vs Director, the research activities at AIIMS were suffering, he regretted and said that only beneficiaries of this dispute were lawyers who were minting money. The AIIMS administration was giving money to lawyers to remove its own Director, who is a world-renowned heart surgeon and has been appointed not because of any favoritism or psychophancy. Instead of respecting the eminent doctor, the minister was fighting to remove him by using the AIIMS money only, he charged.

The BJP leader also criticised Dr Ramadoss for putting into the cold storage the proposals to set up six AIIMS like institutes and upgrade 12 existing ones to that high level of tertiary care with 100 bed hospitals attached to them.

Pointing out the high patient load on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where about 25 lakh patients come annually from all over the country, Mr Ahluwalia said that the previous NDA regime had sanctioned setting up six new AIIMS-like institutes in states and upgrading 12 other medical institutions. However, the UPA Government put it on the slow track and despite land being sanctioned for them these institutes have not yet come up.

UNI