Controversial bill that enables Chhattisgarh govt to take over private medical college tabled in Assembly

The Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday tabled a bill in the state Assembly for acquiring a private medical college in Durg district, even as the opposition BJP has earlier alleged that the acquisition move was aimed at favouring people linked to the institute, whose management includes members of a family in which Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghels daughter is married.

The Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday tabled a bill in the state Assembly for acquiring a private medical college in Durg district, even as the opposition BJP has earlier alleged that the acquisition move was aimed at “favouring” people linked to the institute, whose management includes members of a family in which Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's daughter is married. State Health and Family Welfare Minister T S Singh Deo tabled the bill to acquire Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Medical College in Kachandur village of the district and said urgent acquisition of the college is required in the interest of people.

According to the bill that is titled Chhattisgarh Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Medical College, Durg (Acquisition) Bill, 2021, the state government will appoint a special officer to conduct a valuation of all the movable and immovable properties of the college for payment against acquisition and the payable amount considering the inevitability of the acquisition would be double of the actual valuation amount.

No other amount will be payable to any living or legal person for any property, the draft said.

The government shall not be liable to any liability pending on its management towards any living or legal person prior to acquisition. The liabilities of the college prior to vesting in the government shall continue to be the liabilities of its former owners and may be recovered from them by the lenders through normal procedures of law, it said.

Any person who had been serving in the college before vesting in the government will not make any claim for job to the government after acquisition. Any payment or salary due to such a person will not be made by the government and they can claim from the former owners, a provision of the bill said. Discussion on the bill is likely to take place in the House in the next two days. Briefing about the objectives of the bill, the health minister said that Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Medical College was established in the year 2013 and many students are already studying there.

Singh Deo said the present owners of the college had requested the state government to take over the institute in view of their financial difficulties. It is necessary in the public interest to take over the medical college immediately.

The minister said the acquisition of this college will add a financial burden of about Rs 140 crore to the state exchequer every year.

Earlier, senior BJP MLA Brijmohan Agrawal had opposed the bill in the assembly saying that it is not in the interest of the people.

A controversy has erupted over the bill after a newspaper reported on Tuesday that the acquisition move raises questions of conflict of interest as the financially-strapped medical college's management team includes members from a family in which Chief Minister Bhupesh's daughter is married.

The BJP had alleged that the acquisition is aimed at “favouring” people associated with the institute. The chief minister, in a series of tweets on Tuesday, had denied the allegations of wrongdoing and favouritism, terming them as “baseless”, and defended the government's move to take over the college.