Union Health and Family Welfare minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday said that the Centre has failed to acquire land for the proposed AIIMS-like hospital at Raiganj as the TMC-led Bengal Government has remained non-cooperative.
According to Azad, even if the Zilla Parishad has passed a resolution and identified a land with farmers’ consent, the State Government has been pushing for setting up the hospital somewhere near Kolkata.
“We had approached the previous Left Front Government, but it was not ready to acquire the land. The current government is telling us to shift the hospital from Raiganj. But the location is need-based,” Azad told reporters here.
He was here to launch a book on homeopathic treatment,
The minister said that though six other such hospitals have received free land, the Government is ready to pay an estimated price of Rs 15 crore for the hospital at Raiganj following the State Government’s opposition to acquire it.