The Hindu : Hospital in memory of Jayaprakash Narayan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 03, 2004

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Hospital in memory of Jayaprakash Narayan

By K. Balchand

PATNA Jan. 2. The Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, laid the foundation stone for a Rs. 300-crore hospital to commemorate the Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan here today.

The Lok Nayak Jayaprakash All India Institute of Medical Sciences will be constructed in three years and will be a full-fledged hospital with all the 25 super-specialities for which the AIIMS, Delhi, is known for. The third one in the series of six such hospitals to be set up across the country, the LNJPAIIMS, spread over 100 acres, would also have a 100-seat medical college attached to it.

It will become functional within three years though it is expected to take about five years to be completed. The foundation was slated for October 11, which marked the conclusion of JP's birth centenary celebrations, but was cancelled by the Election Commission in the light of the byelection to the Fatuha Assembly constituency then.

Mr. Shekhawat said that the idea behind setting up six autonomous institutions on the pattern of the AIIMS was to instil confidence among the poor that the nation cared for them. He said there was no dearth of good hospitals for the well-to-do, but regretted that medical care in the country was not of the same standard for the poor. The idea of setting up the hospital in memory of JP was in deference to his endeavour for the uplift of the downtrodden.

The former Prime Minister, Chandra Shekhar, said he had come as an MP from Delhi to the Patna Medical College hospital for a surgery in 1963 for it was considered as one of the best.

The Union Health Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said the hospital would be run by the Centre at an annual burden of Rs. 100 crores and hoped that it would help those who had to rush to Delhi for advanced medicare and facilities.

The Chief Minister, Rabri Devi, and the former Chief Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, urged the Vice-President to use his good offices and see that the Centre favoured Bihar with an economic package and help establish institutions such as the IIT and IIM.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Shekhawat laid the foundation stone of "Rajendra Mandapam", a conference hall being set up in the memory of the former President, Rajendra Prasad, at the Raj Bhavan at an estimated cost of Rs. 1 crore.

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