AIZAWL, March 31— On the seventh sitting of the Mizoram Assembly recently, Health Minister F. Malsawma told the House that the central government had some reservations against the proposed Referral Hospital as a result of which the centre had asked the state government to start the hospital with 50 beds.
Answering a question by ruling MLA, Dr. Lalzama, the Minister said the Department of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) had advised the state government to implement a 50 bedded interim hospital at the State Referral Hospital and that about 57.07% of the construction had been completed at present.
“The centre had shown reluctance in implementing a 300 bedded hospital as it had had a bad experience in Nagaland. The result of this was that it had requested the state to make a start with a 50-bedded hospital and a fund of Rs. 165.63 lakhs had been released by the Centre for the present. Rs. 25 crore had already been incurred for the Referral Hospital and the state government had requested another Rs 15 crore from the Centre,” the Minister told the House.
Answering supplementary questions, the Minister said a number of new specialist doctors would be required at the Referral Hospital as well as the relocation of some of the specialists from the Aizawl Civil Hospital to the Referral Hospital. Answering a question about the expenditure of Rs. 45 lakhs for services rendered by a consultancy agency, the Minister explained that this amount had not been incurred as the services of the consultancy agency was not required after all.
Explaining the situation Malsawma said, that when the State Referral Hospital scheme was first broached, it was taken up by the Planning Commission at the Centre which instructed the state government to employ the services of a consultancy agency as the Commission was not too happy with the scheme the state had drawn up. However, before the state could employ the agency, the DONER was established which requested the state government to make a smaller start at the Referral Hospital with 50 beds. As a result, the services of a consultancy agency became redundant. Incidentally, the consultancy agency the state had approached for a fee of Rs. 1 crore initially which was negotiated down to Rs. 45 lakh.