Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to instruct Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry to revisit the decision to introduce the new user charges on patients who come to this institution and revert to the earlier practice of offering free services to the public as assured in 2008.
Collecting user charges would affect poor patients from Puducherry as well as neighbouring districts in Tamil Nadu -- Cuddalore, Villupuram, and Tiruvannamalai -- who have been availing healthcare services free of cost, she said in her letter to the Prime Minister.
In this connection, the Chief Minister recalled that JIPMER was made an autonomous institution in 2008 despite vehement opposition by the AIADMK. She said the party had opposed the Bill in Parliament at introductory stage itself.
“Overruling our strident objections, Bill was passed with an assurance that the existing free services to the public would be continued without any change. Introduction of user charges for routine investigations and medical procedures amounts to reneging on the solemn assurance given in Parliament”, she pointed out.
Meanwhile, in Puducherry, the JIPMER Protection Committee has planned to convene a meeting of various political parties and bodies from Villippuram, Cuddalore, Tindivanam and Puducherry on September 9 to decide on picketing JIPMER Director, T S Ravikumar’s office on September 10.
T Murugan, president of the committee and Tamil Nadu CPM council member, said the committee would meet Ravikumar on September 6 to hear his views on withdrawal of the user fee hike from September 10.
The seven-member delegation of the committee which met the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad, in New Delhi last week, had been assured by Azad that he would take up the matter with the authorities concerned, said Murugan.
Murugan also thanked Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa for announcing a demonstration by the party demanding the withdrawal of user charges at JIPMER.
Menbers of BJP, CPI, CPM, MDMK, RSP, DMDK and Confederation of Puducherry Government Employees Associations and JIPMER Hospital Employees Union are signatories to the memorandum.
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