PMK urges administration to reconsider decision on ESIC

Puducherry, Oct 4 (UNI) Pattali Makkal Katchi(PMK) Puducherry Unit Secretary and Parliamentary Party leader M Ramadoss, today urged the administration to reconsider the decision to hand-over the proposed Government Medical College to the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).

Talking to newspersons here, Prof Ramadoss said the Puducherry administration should approach the ESIC and the Planning Commission with this demand. It is doubtful whether the Corporation was having an expertise to run a medical college and, if, ESIC sets-up the medical college here, the administration would not take any decision, considering the welfare of the people, he added.

He said when the annual non-plan expenditure of JIPMER was only Rs 59.76 crore, the administration could run the medical college out of the allocation of around Rs 3000 crore. The project report of the medical college for five years was prepared and the amount exaggerated to over Rs 800 crore, causing panic among the officals here, while the annual amount should have come to around Rs 200 crore, he added.

On the financial crisis, the PMK leader said, a secretary-level Committee should be constituted to find out the reasons for departments experiencing financial crisis and steps necessary to bail them out and a detailed report must be submitted to the Government by seeking funds.

Prof Ramadoss said, accompanied by ministers, he would talk to the Finance Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi on October 6 to get funds for Puducherry.

He lauded the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for enhancing the ceiling of creamy layer in the reservation for Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in higher educational institutions and condemned the administration here for its failure to provide reservation to the minorities in education and employment in the Union Territory.

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