TURA: The Nokma Council in Tura has urged the State Government to urgently take up the construction of additional buildings at the Tura Civil Hospital to meet the mandatory requirement as per the Medical Council of India (MCI) of 300 to 500 beds, to make way for the setting up of the proposed Tura Medical College.
In its memorandum submitted to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, the council pointed out that the minimum requirement for 100 (one hundred) MBBS admissions annually is that there should be a College and a Teaching Hospital of 300 (three hundred) beds which is to be increased to 500 (five hundred) in subsequent years, and urged that steps are taken to speed up the process.
“The fund of Rs198 crore has already been sanctioned by the Government of India in 2013 under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for the establishment of the Tura Medical College. It has been six years since it was sanctioned and as such there is urgency to speed up the process,” the council said.
The council informed that land totalling 150 bighas to extend the construction of the buildings has already been given by the GHADC in two phases and that the lack of open space for the construction is due to illegal occupation of hospital land, towards which eviction notice has also been served by the West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner. The council added that the Meghalaya High Court in its judgement of March 15 2019 to a petition by the encroachers had upheld its previous judgement in favour of the State of Meghalaya and passed the verdict that the matter is ‘closed and disposed off’.
With regard to the rehabilitation of the encroachers, the council said that housing was provided to the affected parties under notice in the Government Urban Housing Project with over 400 flats at Danakgre near Tura, while also mentioning that the petition claiming a part of the land given by GHADC has been withdrawn by Danakgre A’king Nokma, Enila Ch Marak.The council also highlighted the earlier HC judgement of May 24 2017 where it had stated ‘any court should take into consideration that it has got a public importance so the matter should not be kept pending and taken lightly’ and urged the government to take appropriate and necessary measures in order that the construction can commence without any further delay.