KARNAL: Even as the first brick of the much-hyped Kalpana Chawla Medical College is yet to be laid, the hospital, which exists only in papers, is costing the state exchequer over Rs 7 lakh a month for the last about one year.
However, no work on construction of the building could be started as authorities had not yet completed the modalities. But the department has gone ahead and appointed 25 staff including director, senior medical officers, accountants, assistants, stenographers, record clerks, data entry operators, drivers and peons.
The collective salary of this staff comes to Rs 7 lakh a month. Though the staffers have virtually no work to do as hospital building is non-existent, they draw full salary from the state government.
This was revealed in a RTI reply to local activist Akshay Sharma. It also revealed that the staff members were also drawing hefty travel expenses. Akshay had filed the RTI query with the department on August 6.
Senior officials of the health department said on condition of anonymity that most appointments for the college were to be made before commencement of construction work, so that the college could get approval from the Medical Council of India.
Two years ago, the state government had announced a medical college in the name of Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla. After prolonged struggle by locals, the state government finally agreed to come up with a medical college in Karnal in memory of the astronaut. In August last year, it was decided to relocate the police lines adjoining the civil hospital to provide land for the Rs 400-crore project.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting of officials of departments concerned under the chairmanship of Dr Samir Mathur, secretary (home), Haryana. However, the project soon hit a road block as the government failed to issue a notification in this regard.
The police lines here was to be shifted to a 48-acre land on Assandh road and the 25 acres of existing police lines were to be transferred to the medical college. It had been decided to attach the civil hospital with the college and upgrade it from 200-beds to 300-beds hospital.
Under the proposed project, HUDA was to develop a commercial complex on the campus of the medical college to generate income, which was to be utilised for construction of police lines. However, till date, no foundation stone has been laid at the proposed site of construction, sources said.
Via: TOI
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