New Delhi: Rajya Sabha member from Meghalaya, Wansuk Syiem, who is a member of the Governing Council of North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), has demanded autonomous status for the Institute before the ambitious expansion plan for the country’s premier health care centres.
Raising the matter during the Zero Hour in the Parliament, Syiem said that such a step will augur well not only for NEIGRIHMS, but also for the whole North East.
There was a proposal to grant autonomous status to the Institute in the line of the AIIMS and six such other bodies coming up in other parts of the country.
“Unfortunately, the growth and expansion of NEIGRIHMS has been consistently stymied by the ad hocism on the part of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,” Syiem said.
In 2012 during the Governing Council meeting, the then Union Health Minister had endorsed the need for granting autonomy to the Institute which is yet to be implemented, she pointed out.
Incidentally, six AIIMS like institutions which started elsewhere in India much later than NEIGRIHMS were granted autonomous character through an Act of Parliament from the very inception. But NEIGRIHMS is still struggling since it falls under the MCI regulations in the absence of autonomous status, Syiem said.
The NDA Government is embarking on an ambitious expansion network of the country’s premier health care institutions. The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister is the Chairman of this super-specialty referral hospital (NEIGRIHMS) which boasts of state-of-the-art-technology.
The Governing Council of the Institute comprises of 30 members from different walks of expertise.