AIIMS land handed over, says TN in Madras HC; Centre accepts it

AIIMS land handed over, says TN in Madras HC; Centre accepts it

Dec 19, 2020, 04.40 AM IST

Madurai: Putting an end to the political wrangling over handing over of land earmarked for construction of AIIMS in Madurai to the Union government, the state on Friday told the Madurai bench of the Madras high court that it had handed over the land to the Centre. Assistant solicitor general L Victoria Gowri, central counsel, confirmed the same in the court.

Recording the submissions, a bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and B Pugalendhi asked additional advocate general K Chellapandian, appearing for the state, to take action against the official who had furnished wrong RTI information stating that the land was yet to be handed over by the state government. The court was hearing a PIL that latched onto the RTI reply to seek speeding up of work to establish the premier institution.

K Chellapandian told the court that after the PM laid the foundation stone for the construction of AIIMS, the Centre had sought enter-upon permission on June 7, 2019. The next month, proposals were sent to the commissioner of land administration to transfer the land.

He further stated that on September 9, 2019, the collector passed an order according permission to enter upon the 200 acres of land. The ministry of health sent a communication seeking an additional 22.49 acres of land and the same was identified and permission granted to enter upon. He stated that after the central government sought to hand over the land in August this year, handing over certificate was prepared and sent to the central government for signing and returning the same on November 3. The letter for handing over the land was sent to the central government on November 6, said the AAG.

Assistant Solicitor General L Victoria Gowri confirmed that the state government had handed over the land for construction of AIIMS. A meeting was conducted in this regard with a fact finding mission of the funding agency, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) from November 24 to 26. She said that the next stage would be signing of a loan agreement before March 31, 2021, after which the project would be commissioned.

Taking cognizance of the submissions, the bench asked the central government to show more interest in the project.