By TCN News,
New Delhi: Continuing their efforts to apprise the government and concerned departments about the plight of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College of Aligarh Muslim University, a delegation of AMU and JNMC alumni on Thursday met Dr Rakesh Kumar, Joint secretary, PMMSY (Pradhan Mantri Swastha Surakha Yojna) Ministry of Health here at Nirman Bhawan.
Led by P. Mohammad, the delegation apprised the ministry official about the poor funding of the hospital by UGC. A memorandum was submitted to Joint secretary referring to a Jan 2010 visit of Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, and a high-level team from the Union Health Ministry visited JNMC in February that year. The team headed by Mr. BK Prasad, Joint Secretary, MOHFW, visited the JNMC on 15th Feb. 2010. Principal of the college, Dr. M. Ashraf Malik apprised the team of the problems of the hospital. He told them that HRD is giving only Rs 2.10 Cr per annum to run the hospital with 1050 beds. The recommendations of Joint secretary for recurrent grant were not implemented as PMMSY-II funds only one time grant and there is no provisions for recurrent grants.
The joint secretary was concerned after knowing the disparity in funding of central university hospitals and central government health services (CGHS). He referred delegation’s letter for HRD ministry secretary Ashok Thakur with positive recommendations, as JNMCH is funded by UGC. He said if HRD ministry approaches health ministry for fund allocation, MOHFW will come in favour as this is genuine issue. The MOHFW cannot voluntarily fund UGC-HRD funded institutions annually.
Therefore, the issue lies in the basket of HRD- UGC and hope the favourable ministries comes up with the solution to the longstanding issue. The two major UGC funded hospital JN Medical college Hospital & Sir Sunderlal Hospital, IMS, BHU are suffering due to this disconnect in the policy of allocation of business rules of HRD-UGC & MOHFW.
The grave discrimination of UGC funded medical colleges of Uttar Pradesh was raised after TCN report of 17th May 2012. The AMU & JNMC Alumni met several MPs and the issue was raised in zero hour of Rajya Sabha by Mohammad Adeeb on the last day of budget session i.e 22nd May 2012.
JNMCH, AMU, Aligarh is the only hope for tertiary healthcare for western UP districts of Rampur, Moradabad, Sambhal, Khurja, Badaun. In eastern UP, Institute of Medical sciences, Sir sunderlal hospital BHU, Varanasi funded by UGC is also ailing with same condition. The central government hospitals in Delhi funded by MOHFW for central government health services (CGHS) are adequately funded. Therefore the MPs demanded inclusion of JNMCH, AMU & IMS, Varanasi funding under MOHFW.
On 2nd. October 1962, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College was declared open by Prof. Hadi Hasan. The medical college was recognized by the MCI in the year 1969. In the same year under the Chairmanship of the Secretary, Ministry of Education, Govt, of India it was agreed that fund would be provided by the UGC. The maintenance grant of JNMC- AMU is static since 2005 with 2 crore 10 lakhs per annum, that is Rs 54.77/ patient bed / day. The central government health services hospital (CGHS) maintained by MOHFW are provided grant Rs. 250-300/ patient bed/ day.