KOCHI: It seems that finally things are moving vis-à-vis the Kochi Cancer Centre under the new LDF dispensation in the state. A meeting of the Governing Council of the centre headed by the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will be convened next week to take stock of things and plan the future course of action. This was revealed by former MP and CPM Ernakulam district secretary P. Rajeev at a workshop convened to discuss developmental issues of the district and how to utilise the allocation in the state budget for them at the Ernakulam Town Hall on Monday.
“The Health Minister and the Chief Minister have agreed to this,” he said adding a new Detailed Project Report (DPR) with certain alterations to the present one had to be prepared to realize the cancer centre. Finance Minister Dr T. M. Thomas Isaac who inaugurated the workshop organised by EMS Research Centre said that once he was presented with the DPR, he would release sufficient funds in phases for building the cancer centre. “There will not be any budgetary constraints for this,” Isaac added.
Isaac also said that it did not augur well for a medical college like Ernakulam Government Medical College to witness a student of the institution dying after contracting fever. “I am ready to provide funds to augment facilities at the medical college also, but specific project proposals have to come to me for that,” he added.
Former Ernakulam District Collector and member of the Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer Movement Mr K.R. Viswambharan, while participating in the workshop, demanded appointment of a full-time special officer of IAS rank for the cancer centre project so as to streamline the work associated with it including the preparation of what is required as DPR. With District Collector M.G. Rajamanickam who has been holding the additional charge of special officer moving, there is currently uncertainty over the post.
