Amid allegation of misuse of prime land leased out for setting up hospitals and nursing homes in the state capital, the General Administration (GA) department of Odisha government today said it will initiate a joint verification before issuing show cause notices.
"Both the GA department and the health department will have a joint verification on the alleged misuse of land leased out for the purpose of setting up hospitals and nursing homes. We will issue show cause notices only after proper verification," GA special secretary Nitin Chandra told reporters here.
He said strict action would be taken if any of the government guidelines was found to have been violated.
The Health and Family Welfare department had published a list of 44 hospitals and nursing homes who availed land in the capital city and as per guidelines, these health institutes were supposed to provide free healthcare to BPL patients.
However, the health department found that 13 out of 44 parties had not set up hospitals on the land provided to them at affordable prices and at prominent areas of the capital like Saheed Nagar, Jayadev Vihar, Paika Nagar, Chandrasekharpur, Dumduma and Kharavela Nagar between 1985 and 2006.
The matter had put the state revenue minister Bijayshree Routray in the eye of a storm after it was found that land allotted to his doctor wife was converted to a private residence.
In his clarification Routray had said the clinic run by his wife did not function properly as another big hospital came up in the area and they stayed on the same plot as he did not own any residential plot in the state capital.
Meanwhile, the state government has handed over land grabbing and encroachment cases of Ghangapatna village on the outskirts of the state capital to the crime branch and it has been asked complete investigation within two months.
