Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the fully functional All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bilaspur next year.
This was stated by BJP national president and Rajya Sabha MP JP Nadda on Sunday while inaugurating the outpatient department of AIIMS in Bilaspur. Nadda also congratulated Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and frontline workers for making the state the first in the country to fully vaccinate 100 per cent of its adult population against COVID-19.
He said that AIIMS Bilaspur would be made fully functional within next six months and hoped the Prime Minister will inaugurate it. As much as Rs 2,000 crore will be spent annually to run the institute while a total of Rs 44,000 crore will be set aside for the 22 AIIMS, he said during the programme organised to celebrate the state’s remarkable feat.
Nadda, who is a native of Bilaspur, said though AIIMS Delhi and the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, had been built in and around 1960, no other premier health institute had been built in other parts of the country until 2014. Under Modi's leadership, 22 AIIMS are being built across the country, he said.
Praising Modi and Thakur, Nadda said that the public should pat on the backs of the two leaders for carrying out unprecedented developmental works in the country and the state respectively.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said India was able to manufacture 31-32 crore COVID-19 vaccines per month under Modi's sincere and active leadership and that the Prime Minister had relaxed norms, besides providing the vaccine makers every possible help in research and manufacturing.
“India has manufactured vaccines not only for its citizens but also exported it to various countries, including the developed ones,” he said.
Speaking about the challenges faced in vaccinating citizens in the hill state, the Chief Minister Thakur said that a special chopper had been arranged to reach out to people in the remote Bara Bhangal area of Kangra district.
He said that the doctors, health workers, ASHA workers, had done wonderful work and made the people of the State proud.
Thakur further said that the State is also fully prepared for tackling any possible third wave of Corona, for which the capacity of beds in hospitals has been increased from 3804 to 8765 and it would be further increased to 11000.
Union Minister and local MP Anurag Thakur said that no citizen from the state will have to go to PGIMER or AIIMS Delhi once the 750-bedded facility in Bilaspur will start functioning in its full capacity by June.
Several COVID-19 workers were honoured during the function.
As many as 53,87,714 eligible adults have been administered the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine till Saturday evening, according to the State Government.
Himachal Pradesh was also the first state to achieve 100 per cent first dose vaccination of the adult population by the end of August.
