SHILLONG: The Estimates Committee of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly headed by former Chief Minister DD Lapang has served the Health Department a two-month deadline to make the MRI machine at Civil Hospital functional, failing which the Health officials will be taken to task.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the Health department officials here on Wednesday, Lapang said, “The MRI machine costing over Rs 5 crore at Civil Hospital has remained non-functional for several month and the committee has taken great exception to this.”
Ronnie V. Lyngdoh, a member of the committee, said, “There is no permanent staff to operate the MRI machine.”
Stating that a whooping Rs 1. 50 crore would be required to repair the machine, he said, “We will leave it to the wisdom of the health department as far as the arrangement of the said amount is concerned and if they fail they will be held accountable.”
The installation of the machine was done way back in 2012 at a cost of Rs 5.17 crore where 90 per cent was borne by the North Eastern Council and 10 per cent by the state government.
On the other hand, the committee also discussed delay in setting up of medical college at Mawprem, setting up of infertility unit at Shillong near Ganesh Das Hospital and a trauma unit at Nongpoh and Jowai.
The committee has set a time frame of two months to make the trauma centers at Nongpoh and Jowai functional.
Lapang informed that the committee would visit Garo Hills region shortly.
