Row over AIIMS site in Assam: Sonowal pushes ball to Centre’s court

“The (Assam) government will prepare a draft with full participation of the leaders of the AIIMS Demand Committee highlighting their concerns and proposals and send a letter to the Central government to do the needful,” an official press release quoting chief minister Sonowal said. The decision to write to the Union health and family welfare ministry was taken considering the “sentiments” of the people of central Assam, though it was the Centre’s “prerogative” to take the final decision, the press release said.

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While the state government on Tuesday said that the decision to set up an AIIMS at Changsari near Guwahati was taken by the then Congress government in the state in February this year, the same government had on June 28 said that it was a selection committee sent by the union health ministry that had selected Changsari out of seven sites shown.

The Assam government in fact had formally handed over land at Changsari on June 28, with chief minister Sonowal and health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma attending the function in which union health secretary AK Panda was also present. The state government had in that meeting announced that an All India Institute of Ayurveda would be set up at Raha. The state government has also sanctioned about Rs 50 crores to the concerned departments to set up power supply, water supply and road connectivity for the AIIMS at Changsari.

Several BJP MPs from Assam, including Tezpur MP RP Sharma and Nagaon MP Rajen Gohain, MoS Railways – the latter’s Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency includes Raha LAC – meanwhile have favoured Raha as an ideal site for the proposed AIIMS. Though it was during the erstwhile Congress regime that the Changsari site was finalized, former chief minister Tarun Gogoi has now supported the cause of Raha.