NEW DELHI, 4 January 2004 — Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat laid the foundation stone for a 300-crore-rupee hospital to commemorate the Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan near Phulwarishareef in Patna yesterday.
The Lok Nayak Jayaprakash All India Institute of Medical Sciences will be constructed in three years and will be a fullfledged hospital with all the 25 super-specialities which the AIIMS, Delhi, is known for. The third one in the series of six such hospitals to be set up across the country, the LNJPAIIMS, spread over 100 acres, will also have a 100-seat medical college attached to it.
It will become functional within three years though it is expected to take about five years to be completed. The foundation was slated for Oct. 11, which marked the conclusion of JP’s birth centenary celebrations, but was canceled by the Election Commission in light of the by-election to the Fatuha assembly constituency then.
Shekhawat said that the idea behind setting up six autonomous institutions on the pattern of the AIIMS was to instil confidence among the poor that the nation cared for them. He said there was no dearth of good hospitals for the well-to-do, but regretted that medical care in the country was not of the same standard for the poor. The idea of setting up the hospital in memory of JP was in deference to his endeavor for the uplift of the downtrodden.
State Governor M. Rama Jois and union food minister Sharad Yadav said the AIIMS in Patna would go a long way in providing health care facilities to the poor.
Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar said he had come as an MP from Delhi to the Patna Medical College hospital for a surgery in 1963 for it was considered as one of the best.
