The Hemant Soren government has moved the Jharkhand high court for the outpatients’ department (OPD) at the newly set up All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Deoghar to be made operational at the earliest.
A virtual inauguration of the OPD at the new AIIMS building was scheduled for June 26 this year. However, it was cancelled days before the scheduled date by the union health ministry due to “unavoidable circumstances”.
Jharkhand advocate general Rajiv Ranjan said the state government filed the plea as it was a matter of public health. The court, after hearing the matter on Monday, issued notices to the Centre and AIIMS seeking their reply on the issue.
“Both the chief minister and the union health minister had given their consent for the virtual inauguration. However, it was cancelled by the health ministry for certain reasons. We want to know why the OPD can’t be made functional even without a formal inauguration. Opening it would benefit the locals,” added Ranjan.
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Seeking replies from the Centre and AIIMS, the court has listed the matter for hearing on August 26.
The virtual inauguration and cancellation of the event last month courted controversy as the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules the Centre, blamed each other for the postponement of the inauguration.
BJP parliamentarian Nishikant Dubey from Godda, where the Deoghar AIIMS is located, accused the district administration of deliberating trying to keep him away from the inauguration event. However, citing Covid protocols, the district administration wanted to hold a virtual event, inviting elected representatives through virtual links.
Amid the controversy, the inauguration event was later cancelled by the union health ministry.
