Himachal Pradesh Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur has urged the Centre to immediately transfer ESIC Medical College, coming up at Ner Chowk in Mandi, to the state government.
In a letter to Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya, Thakur said the construction work for the institute has been completed but the admission process has been stalled due to the delay in handing over the college to the state government.
He said the Director General of ESIC had written a letter to the state government regarding transfer of this medical college and the state had also given its nod. But the state government is not in a position to pay the interest amounting Rs 285 crore asked for by ESIC.
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He said that in addition to interest liability of Rs 285 crore, the state government would have to incur expenditure of Rs 100 crore annually to run the college as operational cost.
He said that keeping in view the above facts, the Centre should agree to hand over the medical college building to the state on "as is where is" basis.
Initially, ESIC had agreed to open the medical college and about Rs 600 crore had already been spent on it but later the Union Ministry for Labour and Employment dragged its feet and expressed serious reservations in running the college as it was not its mandate. The matter has been lingering for the past 18 months.
