Amidst protests foundation stone laid for Koosamma Shetty Haji Abdulla hospital

[email protected] (CD Network)
October 30, 2016

Udupi, Oct 30: Amidst opposition from several quarters, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah laid the foundation stone for the new building of the controversial Government Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Haji Abdulla Memorial Maternity and Children's Hospital here on Sunday.

1shetty

The State government has signed a memorandum of understanding with a private entity, BRS Health and Research Institute Pvt. Ltd. (BRSHRI), owned by NRI businessman B.R. Shetty.

Under the MoU, 3.88 acres of land of the District Maternity and Children's Hospital has been given to BRSHRI to construct and run a 200-bed Government Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Haji Abdulla Memorial Hospital, a 400-bed super-speciality hospital, and a community service centre under public-private participation mode.

The BRSHRI will construct the new charitable maternity and children's hospital near the existing 70-bed Government District Government and Maternity Hospital, which will make way after a year for the construction of a 400-bed super-speciality hospital. The 3.88 acres of land (three adjoining sites) has been leased to BRSHRI for a period of 30 years that can be extended by another 30 years.

In his speech, Mr. Siddaramaiah made it clear that the District Maternity and Children's Hospital was not being privatised. Mr. Shetty would only be constructing and running the new maternity hospital, but it will be under the control of a committee under the Deputy Commissioner.

The intention was only to provide better healthcare facilities to the poor and not privatisation. The poor would be treated free at the maternity hospital.

Those referred from the maternity hospital would be treated free at the 400-bed super-speciality hospital, he said.

“Is it wrong to provide free and better healthcare facilities to the poor? In fact, my government had taken steps to check reckless activities of private hospitals,” he said.

Meanwhile, nearly 200 workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by former MLA Raghupati Bhat, Karkala MLA Sunil Kumar and MLC Kota Srinivas Poojary, staged a protest against what they termed privatisation of the hospital at Jodu Katte here. They were taken into preventive custody.

The district units of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Janata Dal (Secular) also staged dharnas against the “privatization” move. U.R. Sabhapathi, former MLA, and P.V. Bhandary, convener of Mahila Hagu Makkala Aspatre Rakshana Okkoota, observed a day's fast against the move.

bjp

Members of the district unit of the BJP being taken into preventive custody in Udupi on Sunday.

Comments

abdullah
 - 
Monday, 31 Oct 2016

BR Shetty can construct like this 100 or more hospitals.
Then why is he taking the government land which is donated by Haji Abdullah for poor people???!!!

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 31,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 31: The Karnataka government on Wednesday put on hold a controversial proposal to drop certain chapters, including on Islam, Christianity, Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali, from social science textbooks to reduce the 2020-21 syllabi for students in classes 1-10.

Citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption caused to the academic calendar of the year, the government had earlier dropped the chapter on Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali from the Class 7 social science textbook, saying chapters on Tipu Sultan have been retained in the Class 6 and 10 textbooks.

The move did not go down well with the opposition, which saw certain ulterior motives behind the decision.

Apparently under sharp criticism, the Department of Public Instruction issued a new notification on Wednesday "on the directions of the Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar".

There is a delay in opening the schools during the academic year 2020-21 due to COVID-19 pandemic, said the latest order.

In this context, the order said, chapters were dropped to fit in 120 days of the academic year for classes 1 to 10 and the same was published in the department's website.

"However, on the directions of the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, the decision to drop certain chapters has been put on hold. A review will be done following which the deleted chapters will be uploaded in the website," the order read.

Earlier in the day, Mr Kumar had issued a statement, saying that the decision to truncate the syllabus has not been finalised yet. He also made it clear that his department would not remove chapters unnecessarily.

Former chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah had attacked the government on the issue.

"The government, which has failed to control the spread of coronavirus, is using it as an opportunity to push its clandestine agenda of saffronising the textbooks," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 9,2020

Gadag, Apr 9: An 80-year-old woman who tested positive for COVID-19 passed away on Thursday due to cardiac arrest in Gadag, the district's Deputy Commissioner said.

She also had a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). Her body was disposed of as per the protocol, officials said.

According to the Karnataka Government, 10 new positive cases have been reported in the State today, taking the total COVID-19 cases to 191, including 28 discharged patients and six deaths.

With an increase of 540 positive COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 5,734, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.

Out of the 5,734 cases, 5,095 are active COVID-19 cases and 472 patients have recovered while 166 have died.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 15,2020

Kalaburagi, May 15: Former Karnataka Minister Dr Sharanprakash Patil and 22 others, including several local Congress leaders, have been booked for violating lockdown guidelines by conducting a meeting at a convention hall in Sulpeth town on May 13.

The FIR was registered on Thursday against 23 persons, including the former MLA and 21 local Congress leaders, under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Congress leader Patil and his followers had conducted a meeting at a convention hall in Sulpeth town on May 13, following which sectoral magistrate Muneer Ahmed lodged a complaint.

This comes as the country of under lockdown and the Centre and states have issued strict social distancing and other norms to be followed to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.