Sonia Gandhi seeks release of funds for Rae Bareli AIIMS

Lucknow, April 10: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has written a letter to Health Minister J.P. Nadda seeking an early release of budgetary allocations for AIIMS in her parliamentary constituency of Rae Bareli, party leaders said on Friday.

In her letter, Gandhi has detailed how the revised expenditure finance committee did not release the budget for All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in 2014-15, leading to the construction and other works at the campus not being started.

In February 2014, the cost estimates committee allocated a revised cost of Rs.1,427 crore for Rae Bareli AIIMS. The report on this was sent to the union government in June and again in September last year, Gandhi has said.

Despite this, she points out in her letter to Nadda, there has been no forward movement.

The UPA government in June 2009 approved establishing of AIIMS in Rae Bareli and in July 2013, the Akhilesh Yadav government provided 97 acres of land for the super-speciality medical institute.

In November 2013, construction work on the residential campus began after Rs.159.56 crore was released by the government.

IANS