Ministry jolt to JNIMS session, CM apologises
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 25 2009: Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh has apologised to the staff of the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) for the failure of receiving the Letter of Indent (LoI) from the Ministry to commence the academic session of the medical institute from this year.

Explaining that the LoI has not been given as all the requisite infrastructures for running the medical institute in accordance to rules of Medical Council of India (MCI) could not be ensured in time, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh who is also the chairman of the Society JNIMS said 'sorry' and asked for forgiveness during a meeting with the staff chaired by him today.

(Top) CM O Ibobi with ministerial colleagues at the joint meeting (bottom) JN Hospital staff

Maintaining that setting up of a medical institute is the greatest aspiration of his life, Ibobi said failure of starting the academic session of JNIMS despite great efforts was very shocking to him personally and even he thought of resigning from the post of Chief Minister over this.

The Chief Minister said it was an eye opener after the first visit of the MCI team.

The decision of setting up the medical college was first adopted in 2007 and applied for it without any ground preparation, thus leading to the failure, the Chief Minister admitted, adding that necessary preparation should have been made after downloading the rules of the MCI from internet without even going to Delhi.

"In case of necessity, the Director or other officials should have been sent for getting more information.

Only after a good preparation, we should have invited the MCI team for inspection.

So we are extremely sorry for this," the Chief Minister reiterated.

Humbled by the failure, a sober down Chief Minister philosophically observed, "Overconfidence is not good at the time of taking up any work.

But we have been guilty of overconfidence.

In spite of this setback, we should not be discouraged".

Taking on the defensive, the Chief Minister asserted the required infrastructures of JNIMS has been exaggerated by MCI and this can drag the MCI to the Supreme Court on corruption charges.

JNIMS Director Dr Ahanthem Dijamani (AD), while observing that it was expected that permission would be granted despite lack of some infrastructure, suggested that every possible efforts should be made to fill up the existing gap so that the session could start definitely from next year.

Dr N Dwijamani of JNIMS noted that for the success of the medical institute there should be transparency in the works being taken up apart from decentralisation in the administration and management.

Health Minister Ph Parijat, Works Minister K Ranjit, PDA Chairman Dr Loken and Commissioner of Health V Vumlum were also present during the joint meeting.