The scene last Friday outside AMRI Dhakuria, which benefited from the government’s land largesse but didn’t keep its side of the bargain. (Sayantan Ghosh)
A promise to provide free treatment at AMRI Dhakuria to underprivileged patients was forgotten within around three years of the promoters extracting a preferential land lease from the Jyoti Basu government, an audit has revealed.
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Between 1994 and 1998, the then Left Front government had leased out two parcels of land totalling 81.55 cottahs to AMRI on condition that free treatment would be provided to poor patients, comprising 20 per cent of the hospital’s outpatient capacity and 10 per cent of its available beds.
But an internal audit by the finance department last month revealed that the hospital didn’t bother keeping its side of the bargain beyond three years despite benefiting from a sweet rent deal that was immune to upward market revisions.
The Telegraph had highlighted on Wednesday how the Left Front had locked the annual lease rent at Rs 9.14 lakh for 30 years, at least 16 times less than the current market lease rate for that area.
While Clause 6 of both the 1994 and 1998 deals — the first one gave AMRI 27.55 cottahs, on which it raised a five-storey building, and the second one added 54 cottahs to the campus — clearly mentions the free-treatment condition, the then government didn’t bother creating a monitoring mechanism.
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The finance department’s audit report states that the government left it to the private partners of the joint venture company to send periodic reports on how many poor patients had been treated for free.
“After the first 2-3 years, no report or memo could be found regarding treatment of poor patients in the hospital. The (finance) department never interfered to ensure implementation of Clause 6. It is apprehended that the department’s activity was merely confined to receiving rent,” the report says.
Health department honchos said the administrative department too never pressured AMRI to adhere to its promise.
“Till 1998, the state government had a 26 per cent share in the joint venture company and 50 per cent of the board of directors and chairman of the board were nominated by the state government… But there is no evidence that the government tried to enforce the agreement to medically treat poor patients for free,” a senior health department official said.
According to him, the government’s lack of interest in enforcing Clause 6 defeated the objective of forming a joint sector health care company.
The government had acquired Niramoy Group of Institutions, run by a trust, in 1991 and brought in some private partners — led by arrested director S.K. Todi — in 1994.
Officials said it was the norm to insert a provision in any long-term land lease such as the one involving AMRI, giving the state the right to terminate the agreement if any condition was not followed.
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“When it is found that the conditions set by the government are not followed, the private parties are cautioned and often asked to rectify the faults within a period of six months. If it is found that the conditions are not being followed even after six months, the government can terminate the lease,” said a senior official of the land and land reforms department.
No such provision was apparently included in the AMRI land deal, giving the private promoters the licence to flout without fear. “Worse, the state never put pressure on the promoters to follow the conditions,” the official said.
Conditional land lease at preferential rates is, of course, not restricted to AMRI. The difference lies in how the government has kept the rest on their toes.
A health department official cited the 2005 agreement with the KPC Group, which was allotted around 200 acres of land on the premises of KS Roy TB Hospital in Jadavpur for an annual lease rent of Re 1 to set up a medical college.
The condition for the lease was that KPC Medical College and Hospital would offer concessions to 50 underprivileged students a year.
The health department keeps tabs on whether the private promoters of this medical college have been adhering to that condition.
The director of health services, Shyamapada Basak, said he was unaware of the clauses in the agreement between AMRI and the then government. “There is, however, little doubt that the time has come to develop a mechanism to ensure all private hospitals follow conditions and norms.”
Source: https://t-tees.com
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