Govt to consider Cochin Cancer Research Centre demands: CM Pinarayi Vijayan

KOCHI: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday assured Prof M.K. Sanu that the demands raised by the Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer Movement regarding the Cochin Cancer Research Centre (CCRC) will be actively considered. The assurance was given when the latter met the Chief Minister at a function organised to unveil a documentary on tobacco and cancer at the Children’s Park here. Prof Sanu who heads the Iyer Movement also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister enlisting the various demands.

The main demand in this regard is to start inpatient facility at CCRC, especially when chemotherapy treatment is administered at the centre. It also demanded starting cancer surgeries at the facility offered at the Ernakulam Government Medical College (EMC). The memorandum also demands deploying adequate number of junior doctors and nurses at the CCRC and deploying super-specialty doctors at the EMC.

It demanded that the EMC should have a strong leadership so as to enable seamless co-opration between CCRC and EMC and lifting both institutions to international standards. The demand also said that the director for the cancer centre is yet to be deployed and it should be done at the earliest so as to give a direction to the functioning of the CCRC. The Governing Council of CCRC chaired by the Chief Minister has met only once since the LDF Government assumed power and it needed to be met at the earliest to speed up all processes.