From our Correspondent

SIVASAGAR, July 29: The announcement, in the year 2011, to build a 300 bedded multi-speciality hospital in Sivasagar by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) had brought cheer and smile to the people of Sivasagar. But their smiling face would very soon be clouded with gloom, as this ambitious project seems to remain a dream for them.

One and half year have passed since the announcement was made by the ONGC to set up a 300 bedded multi-speciality hospital in Sivasagar, as part of  ONGC’s Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives under the focus area of health. But the concerned authorities of the district administration has failed to acquire a suitable plot for setting up the hospital. Though a 50 acre plot is required to start construction of the hospital, no land acquisition had been done for the project as yet.

According to a source from ONGC, as no land has been acquired till date, a huge sum released by the ONGC for the construction of the first phase which entails setting up of the hospital with all related infrastructure like in house residential colony and subsequent future options for setting up a school of Nursing and school of Paramedical Sciences, etc, is about to return.

It needs mentioning that after the declaration by the ONGC, Ajit Hazarika, CMD, in-charge convened a meeting of ONGC officials at Delhi where plans for setting up the hospital were finalized. But unfortunately, the required land has not been acquired yet.

This multi-specialty hospital which is proposed to provide the secondary and tertiary level medical care in broad specialties like cardiology, neurology, nephrology, ENT, oncology (medical, surgical and radiation), orthopaedics and allied departments/facilities, is expected to fulfill the long-standing demands of the people of Sivasagar. The hospital, if comes to reality, will also be a great help to the vast number of patients of cancer, kidney and heart ailments who go to Mumbai, Delhi and Vellore, etc for treatment.

On the other hand, people here have smelled a kind of conspiracy hatched in bringing this ONGC’s noble chapter in the health sector in Sivasagar.

When ONGC has decided to release huge funds to set up a hospital equipped with modern medical equipments and other facilities in Sivasagar, an unholy nexus between doctors and private hospitals, has become a stumbling block in bringing this hospital to deliver benefits to the people.

According to sources, a group of doctors of ONGC Hospitals in Sivasagar and Nazira and a section of owners of private hospitals and nursing homes of Sivasagar and Dibrugarh had been allegedly trying to stop the project since the day of its announcement.

It has been alleged by various sections of people that patients who approach the two hospitals for treatment were being referred to a few private hospitals and nursing homes located at Sivasagar and Dibrugarh in the name of better treatment by this group of doctors. And for this unethical practice, these doctors get commissions and even costly gifts like cars and air-conditioners from the owners of those private hospitals and nursing homes who were minting money by this process.