PIMS owes Jalandhar MC Rs 11 crore for building plan approval

JALANDHAR: As the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences is planning expansion by raising new buildings, the Jalandhar municipal corporation has calculated building and compounding fee at around Rs 11 crore for sanctioning its already built structure.
Sources revealed that the PIMS management never got the building plan approved after it was submitted to the civic body around a decade back even after receiving notices for the same."The plan was not approved as the society managing PIMS never paid the required fee and the issue kept on hanging fire," said an MC official.
Meanwhile, the PIMS society has sent its plans for expansion to the steering committee for building hostels, auditorium and other structures. "These plans have been sent to the steering committee and any issue of building fees would be decided at the government level," said Dr Kanwaljit, resident director, PIMS.
It has been learnt that out of Rs 11 crore, the building branch officials have computed Rs 2.5 crore as compounding fee only as PIMS authorities earlier did not get the plan approved. However, some objections have also been raised by PIMS about these calculations.
When contacted, Jalandhar MC commissioner G S Khaira said the civic body had given details of the fee that PIMS would have to pay for approval and compounding of its building plan. "We can sanction further plans after we get the money due from PIMS," he said. He admitted that the matter was now being discussed at the highest level in the government.
Meanwhile, the society running PIMS has changed hands through an internal arrangement by getting new investors and old stakeholders reducing their shares. The society has stated that it had little to do with the issue of payment of building approval fee as it was entrusted the job of running the institute.
The institute was earlier given to the society controlled by Punjab minister Surjit Singh Rakhra, but the investors failed to pump in the required funds, which led to unrest at PIMS and then new bankers were allowed to join.