RIPS Project faces land hurdles
The Andhra Pradesh state government has been given the “go ahead” by the central government for the setting up of the Regional Institute of Paramedical Sciences (RIPS). The institute will be set up on the premises of the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) after much deliberation on the part of the central government. An eight-acre land was promised by the government, adjacent to NIMS at Errum Manzil colony. The Andhra Pradesh chief minister had laid the foundation stone for the 100-crore project in August, 2012. However, the state government officials are sceptical about the progression of the project due to red tapism.
Project specifications:
The AP Chief Minister announced that the project would be completed by the scheduled time. The central government has allotted Rs.90-crore under the PMSSY while the remaining expenses would be borne by the state government. Once the RIPS becomes operational, 1000 students would be given admission every year to be traine d on 33 different paramedical courses. It is expected that the courses would start from 2014. Once operational, it would provide employment opportunities to thousands of students in the the medical and health sectors. However, with the bifurcation of the state on the anvil, there could be a rejigging in the seat allocation for students from both the states.
Issues facing the project:
The cause of grave concern currently is that there has been no response regarding the eight-acre land which was promised by the government towards the project. There have been frequent talks between NIMS authorities and different government departments like the Roads and Buildings (R & B) department and Health department regarding the allocation of land. However, nothing concrete has come out of these talks. The R & B department was proposed to allot six acres while the Health department agreed on two acres of land towards the project.
The proposed two acre site that the health department allotted towards the project was inspected by the secretary of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare about two months back. He had requested that efforts for starting earth excavation work be speeded up. However, the earth excavation work could not be started as land allocation issues are still pending. A request was put forward by the Health department officials to the government to compensate them for the land that they will be parting with towards the project, in any other alternate part of the city. However, there has been no response from the government yet on this issue. Allocation of land by the R & B department is also yet to take place. The land allotted by the Health Ministry was visited by a senior official and it was requested that designs of the project be forwarded to the ministry. This process is currently being undertaken.
