Amid walkout by members of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party from the Chhattisgarh Assembly on Thursday, the contentious Chandulal Chandrakar Medical College Acquisition Bill 2021 was approved on Thursday. A massive controversy had followed the bill as it was moved in the assembly on Thursday but nothing could prevent the Baghel government from securing an approval to the bill.
Earlier, BJP senior MLA Brijmohan Agrawal had demanded a division of votes on the amendment proposed by him that the state government should also acquire the employees of the medical college and also should pay the debts of the institution.
The state government turned down this amendment proposal. Soon after the opposition demanded a division of votes on the bill. The speaker allowed the division of votes on the amendment proposal of the BJP. The proposal received 16 votes while 56 MLAs opposed it.
Earlier, Health minister TS Singh Deo had presented the said bill in the House and after a lengthy discussion the opposition had proposed the amendment. The minister had claimed that the bill will help state government an existing medical college at half the price.
Saying that the state government was working on universal healthcare plan, Singh Deo claimed that the 150-bed medical college will boost the healthcare in the Durg region.
The Health minister on the issue of acquisition of medical college employees clarified that this won’t ensure implementation of the reservation roaster so acquiring employees along with the institution won’t be proper.
The BJP MLA Brijmohan Agrawal claimed that the college was immersed in debt and kin of Chandulal Chandrakar on after whom the college is named, have moved the high court for stopping the acquisition. Dr Raman Singh claimed that the institution was sold put in the past to a private group and later the deal got embroiled in a legal trouble over ownership.
The land for the medical college was provided by the municipal corporation and now the state government plans to make payments against the same government land to benefit chosen few Dr Singh added.
The Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had drawn massive criticism on the acquisition of the private medical college as the opposition BJP had cried foul saying the Chief Minister was splurging money to oblige kin of his daughter’s in laws’ family through this ‘loss making’ private medical college based in Durg.
However, Baghel had hit back saying it was only intended to boost healthcare in the start and save the future of the students of the college.
The BJP seniors like former CM Dr Raman Singh, Leader of Opposition Dharamlal Kaushik, Ajay Chandrakar, Narayan Chandel and even Janta Congress Cahhttisgarh MLA Dharamjeet Singh posed stiff challenge to the bill but a defiant state government got it approved with the numbers on their side.
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