'Expenditure incurred on accommodating AIIMS Bathinda's 1st batch will be reimbursed to BFUHS'

Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Monday said the Centre will reimburse expenditure incurred on accommodating first batch of MBBS students of AIIMS Bathinda at the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) in Faridkot.

In a statement here, Harsimrat said the union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan informed her that appropriate instructions had been issued to the finance committee of PGIMER, Chandigarh to reimburse the amount of Rs 1.50 crore to BFUHS.

She thanked the Health minister for taking immediate action on the request made by her to reimburse BFUHS for hosting the first MBBS batch of AIIMS, Bathinda and alleged that the BFUHS campus could not be completed due to "unnecessary delay" in providing mandatory clearances by the state's Congress government.

Harsimrat further said that OPD of AIIMS, Bathinda would be completed by August 31.

She said she had been briefed during a recent review of the project that the OPD would be handed over to the institute and made fully functional on September 1.

"I want to put this medical facility into service for the people of Malwa region as early as possible. I am confidentthat the OPD facilities will start in the first week of the September." She also disclosed that she hadrequested the union health minister to make suitable arrangements for inauguration of the OPD facility of the institute.

The Bathinda MP also informed that the process of selection of Director and Faculty of AIIMS, Bathinda had begun.

She said a governing body was also being put in place at AIIMS Bathinda.

The Union minister said AIIMS, Bathinda had come up in a record time.

"The SAD-BJP government under the leadership of Parkash Singh Badal acquired land for the project and transferred its property rights to the new body. Subsequently, a MoU was also signed between the state government and the Union health ministry and responsibilities were divided.

"The centre was responsible for the funding of the Rs 925 crore project while the state had to make the land encumbrance free and construct a power grid for the project," she said.

"It took 1.5 years for the Congress government to give mandatory clearances and it still has not operationalised the power grid despite the fact that the OPD of AIIMS, Bathinda is slated to start in September this year," she alleged.