Tripura assembly faces pandemonium over Shantiniketan Medical College

AGARTALA: The opposition Congress and CPI-M staged a walkout from the Tripura assembly after protesting in the well demanding a Joint Legislature Committee (JLC) on Friday to check the procedure of issuing NOC to Tripura Santiniketan Medical College (TSMC) run by West Bengal-based Swadhin Trust.
Responding to a calling attention moved by Congress MLA Sudip Roybarman, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha, holding health portfolio stated that as per the central government norms and considering the prayer, Tripura government has allowed TSMC to use a portion of State referral hospital – IGM for teaching purpose until its infrastructure getting ready.
The state government has also imposed certain stringent conditions on TSMC for using the hospital premises for teaching purposes and the National Medical Commission (NMC) has also allowed them to admit 150 MBBS students from this academic session where 50% of seats would be filled by Tripura students.
“Since Swadhin Trust has invested money for infrastructure and their 500-bed hospital is getting ready in a year, the state government allowed them to use the IGM premise without disturbing the existing services and facilities,” Dr Saha said.
He referred to the Medical College Establishment Rules of 1999 and the National Medical Commission Guidelines of 2023, stating that these rules and guidelines permit the government to allow private medical colleges to use government hospitals for educational purposes through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
However, Roybarman alleged that the Chairman of Swadhin Trust Moloy Pith has been accused of several crimes including cattle lifting to Bangladesh from West Bengal and CBI has questioned him several times. Moreover, another medical college run by the group in Bolpur of West Bengal has not been doing well and till now the first batch of MBBS students hasn’t obtained the degree.
“The money whatever he invested here has no white source and CBI accused him of doing illegal business with tainted TMC leader of West Bengal Anubrata Mondol who is in jail now. All the black money they diverted to Tripura and invested silently without any consultation with the state government. But at the final stage he got all the clearance in three months, which needs to be investigated by JLC,” Roybarman stated.
Leader of the opposition and senior CPM MLA Jitendra Chaudhury supported the demand and asked for the Chief Minister’s response. Meantime, the Speaker announced lunch break. After the house was reassembled, both Roybarman and Chaudhury pressed for their demand but Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen didn’t allow CM to speak, which irked the opposition.