AIIMS for Kasaragod: 153 girls stage starvation strike on a centesimal day of indefinite protest

Express News Service

KASARAGOD: On a day when the Union authorities informed a Kerala MP that it has given in-principle approval to arrange an AIIMS in Kerala, round 150 girls staged a day-long starvation strike in Kasaragod city demanding that the state authorities think about organising the premier well being institute within the district.

The girls have been marking the a centesimal day of the indefinite relay starvation strike being held within the city by the AIIMS for Kasaragod Collective on Saturday.

In the final parliament session, Vadakara MP Okay Muraleedharan had requested the Union authorities to sanction All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in Kerala. In the reply now, the minister of state for well being Bharati Pravin Pawar informed the MP that the ministry had given in-principle approval to the venture and the file has been despatched to the Ministry of Finance. “I got the reply today. But the in-principle approval is not new. The file has been with the Ministry of Finance for the past four months,” Muraleedharan informed TNIE.

To ensure, the said coverage of the Union authorities is to arrange one AIIMS in each state below the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).

Officially, the state authorities had proposed 4 websites in Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam and Kozhikode district to arrange the institute. But Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the earlier well being minister Okay Okay Shailaja had stated that the federal government had recognized 200 acres at Kinalur in Kozhikode district for the venture.

In March, Rajya Sabha member John Brittas requested the Union authorities within the House if it was conscious that the state authorities had recognized land for the venture in Kinalur. Minister Pawar didn’t reply to the query.

For the previous a number of years, the civil society in Kasaragod had been demanding that the state authorities think about the district for the venture contemplating it doesn’t have a tertiary care hospital and was relying on the neighbouring state for its well being care wants.

Since January 13, the AIIMS for Kasaragod collective has been on a relay starvation strike close to the New Bus Stand in Kasaragod elevating the demand.

“Till today, at least 700 persons, mostly women, have sat on hunger strike in the protest tent,” stated Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan, convenor of the collective.

On Saturday, the organisers deliberate that 101 girls would stage a starvation strike to mark the a centesimal day of the protest. “But 153 women came forward to take part in the protest on Saturday,” stated Nazar Cherkalam, one other chief of the protest.

In the run-up to the 100 days of protest, the collective had shaped a human chain, and in addition staged a placard holding protest when the Chief Minister visited Kasaragod on April 1.

The website for the venture can be finalised after an inspection of proposed websites by an skilled committee of the Ministry of Health. “We want Kasaragod to be considered for the inspection,” stated Nazar.

On Thursday, the Students Federation of India (SFI), the scholars’ wing of the CPM, introduced out a report on the standing of upper training in Kasaragod and it advisable that AIIMS needs to be arrange within the district.

Kasaragod doesn’t have a government-run engineering faculty or a nursing faculty or a regulation faculty or a medical faculty, the report stated. It would be the solely district in Kerala with no tertiary care hospital.

With the Union authorities giving in-principle approval for AIIMS in Kerala, the collective stated it must shift the stage of protest to the capital metropolis Thiruvananthapuram. “We deserve to be heard. The government cannot ignore us. We are having a meeting on Monday to decide on the future course of action,” stated Kunhikrishnan, a veteran social activist.