No trace of DMCH’s 77 acres as proposed AIIMS in Darbhanga waits for land
Lok Sabha secretariat documents say erstwhile Maharaja of Darbhanga had donated a sum of ₹6 lakh and 300 acres of land for establishment and expansion of Darbhanga Medical College.
At least 77 acres of land belonging to Bihar’s Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) is untraceable in the area where the work on the proposed 750-bed All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is yet to begin due to paucity of land more than a year after the proposal was cleared by the union cabinet, according to documents made available by the Lok Sabha secretariat to Gopal Jee Thakur, who represents Darbhanga constituency in the Lok Sabha,
“Erstwhile Maharaja of Darbhanga had donated a sum of ₹6 lakh and 300 acres of land for establishment and expansion of Darbhanga Medical College, which came to be known as DMCH,” said Thakur, who had sought the information on December 20, 2021.
Thakur is from the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), which is part of the ruling alliance both in the state and at the Centre.
“The DMCH was built by the efforts of king of Khandavala dynasty, Maharaja Rameshwar Singh. It was established in 1946 to provide high quality medical education at affordable cost. The college is recognised by the government of India as a site for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). It aims to provide high quality education and excellent environment for the students in medical education,” says the document made available to Thakur by the parliament library reference, research, documentation and information service (LARRDIS), which has been seen by HT.
Meanwhile, citing the records, Thakur has said that if DMCH was granted as much as 300 acres of land by the then Maharaja of Darbhanga, the boundary of DMCH should be demarcated afresh. The administrative authorities had traced only 227 acres of land following demarcation of DMCH boundary.
The MP said he has also requested the divisional commissioner to do the needful in this regard. “I am very much concerned about establishment of AIIMS at Darbhanga at the earliest. If Maharaja had granted 300 acres land for DMCH, it would still be left with 100 acres after 200 acres is allotted for AIIMS,” Thakur told HT.
DMCH superintendent Dr Harishankar Mishra, however, said there was no available document that could establish that the medical college had 300 acres under its possession. “We don’t have any such record. The document issued by Lok Sabha library must be based on some original source of information. We are more than eager to lay our hands on it.”
During a review meeting at the DMCH in December 2021, chief minister Nitish Kumar had announced to allot 50 acres of more land to DMCH while curtailing from the 200 acres earmarked for establishment of AIIMS.
As per current arrangement, 150 acres is be given to proposed AIIMS and 77 acres will be left for expansion of DMCH.
Curiously, in November 2020, the state cabinet had granted approval for free of cost transfer of 200 acres for AIIMS.
On September 15, 2020, the union cabinet had granted its approval for the AIIMS at Darbhanga, Bihar’s second, to be constructed at an estimated cost of ₹1264 crore in 48 months.