Agartala, Oct 06: Hours after the opposition Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman on Sunday has hit out at the Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha and accused him of allotting land to a private firm to run a super specialty hospital here in Tripura without floating any tender, the cabinet minister Sushanta Chowdhury has denied the allegation and clarified that the land allotment approval is still pending with the state cabinet and allotment is not yet granted.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman alleged, “The chief minister, without the consent of the cabinet, is all set to hand over 28 acres of land to an Imphal-based private run Shija Hospitals and Research Institute (SHRI) in West Tripura’s Bodhjungnagar area.”
“The Chief Minister has bypassed the council of ministers while allotting land to his handpicked private partner,” he said and demanded clarification from the Chief Minister and his government if any tender was floated in this regard.
“This is glaring irregularity and cannot be tolerated. If situation arises, I will file public interest litigation against the move,” he said.
Reacting sharply to the allegation of Sudip Roy Barman, the cabinet minister Sushanta Chowdhury on Sunday said that the Congress MLA has been trying to tarnish the image of the chief minister by levelling baseless allegations.
Chowdhury dismissed the charge levelled against the chief minister and said, “The ARD Department, which owns the land as was identified for establishing the hospital, has issued an NOC and referred the matter to the district magistrate, who will send the matter to the Revenue Department. The land allotment is yet to get nod from the state cabinet and it is under process.”
Chowdhury said that the Shija Hospitals and Research Institute (SHRI) has already promised to invest Rs 9,000 crore by setting up a multi-specialty hospital in the state.
“Tripura needs investment from outside the state for growth. The government is ready to provide land to any party if they want to invest in the northeastern state, be it in healthcare or education. The process will be done as per the government guidelines,” he said.
