The Chhattisgarh Government has decided to present a proposal of acquisition of a private medical college in the Chhattisgarh Assembly.
The proposal related to acquisition of Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Medical College will be presented in the Chhattisgarh assembly. The cabinet has already approved the outlay on July 20, 2021, a government statement said on Tuesday.
The proposed bill will be presented in the house, when it was already known it has shrouded in controversy, the opposition leaders said.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted a newspaper report - ‘Chhattisgarh: Bhupesh Baghel proposes law to acquire pvt college owned by son-in-law’s kin’. The Union Minister mentioned in his tweet that Congress and families of Congress have a history of drowning in corruption and now trying to acquire a college which is in debt. Taking such an action is cheating the public. The hard-earned money of the public of Chhattisgarh is not for corruption rather it is for development of the state, the Union Minister said in his tweet.
The newspaper reported that the proposal raises questions of conflict of interest, the Chhattisgarh government, in an unusual move, plans to take over, via a law, a financially-strapped medical college owned by a family into which Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s daughter has married.
The state government is working on a Bill to acquire privately-owned Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Medical College in Durg. This college is owned by Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Hospital (CCMH), an unlisted private company, registered in March 1997.
Chandulal Chandrakar was a Congress leader, a five-term Lok Sabha MP from Durg, and a Union minister in the past. He died in 1995. The hospital was promoted in his memory by the Chandrakar community, and the Director of CCMH is Mangal Prasad Chandrakar. He is one of the 59 shareholders, holding about 4% in the company.
After the Piyush Goyal tweet ex-CM Dr. Raman Singh also tweeted Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and said, the issue is serious, to benefit his own relatives the CM Baghel is planning to present the proposal in assembly.
The accreditation of the college has expired, even after that preparations are under process to acquire the college spending Rs 125 crore of public money to benefit the family members of the CM, Dr. Raman tweeted.
BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra also tweeted in the same line. Finally, the CM Bhupesh Baghel also countered the tweets saying that the report is the outcome of over creativity which sees it as conflict of interest. I challenge this. As far as public interest is concerned the state will not only purchase the medical college, but also the Nagarnar Steel Plant. We are the people who believe in public sector units. We are not selling the public properties like them.
The CM did not stop here. He said as far as relation is concerned it is personal matter whenever the transaction will occur full transparency will be maintained.
As far as the newspaper report is concerned, it was baseless. The acquisition of the medical college will help in securing the future of hundreds of medical students. Secondly, it will provide 150 doctors every year to the state. It will save time in constructing a new medical college, CM Baghel tweeted.
