Development programme is a question of planning. That is the reason why we have had previously the Planning Commission at the Centre which is now replaced by a more intensive mechanism and Planning Departments in the States. All developmental projects conceived by the authorities and recommended by experts are floated only when there is the blue print of its plan. Nothing can be raised in the name of development without planning. This is simple rule of running a modern state. And planning is a comprehensive activity which entails a number of things to be done and departments to be consulted before the project commences.
On the other hand, when a project is pursued without planning and without taking into account where it would stand after four or five decades, the result is that it becomes counterproductive. We have the case of the 200-bedded maternity hospital in Gandhi Nagar in sight. But the generalization is that an ill conceived and ill-planned project fails to be of any utility and then becomes a liability. The question is why should an important project go ahead without planning? We have not only the Gandhi Nagar Maternity Hospital project in sight; we are making generalization.
In our country politics is personalised and democracy is compartmentalized. It has become only a game of numbers and not of dedicated service with futuristic vision. Therein lay our failures. There is no arguing the point that an elected representative would like to obtain more funds for various projects in his constituency to make his political position stable. That is the fair law of the game of democracy and we don’t dispute the right of the elected representative taking advantage of his access to the corridors of power. But what we abhor and detest is that a developmental activity is undertaken without plan and without proper consent from concerned authorities. Obviously, since there is ulterior motive working behind the project, public money is wasted and that is what pains us.
Raising a 200-bedded Maternity hospital is not a small project. The need was felt because the maternity wards in the SMGS Hospital are dismally inadequate to serve the number of patients. It was perfectly right to think of giving both Jammu and Srinagar cities a new large maternity hospital to cope with the rush of patients. Fortunately, the Union Health Ministry considered the proposal sympathetically and sanctioned 35 crore rupees for a new maternity hospital in Jammu. So far it was highly encouraging. But then the entire project was most shabbily undertaken on a small patch of land of 5 kanals area in Gandhi Nagar, which ordinarily would not be sufficient enough even for a polyclinic what to say of 200-bedded hospital. No sensible planner will agree that a hospital of such a dimension should be built in just 5 kanals and 15 marlas of land when sufficient land was available in the outskirts of the city. Why did the planners agree to squeeze the space for the hospital and turn it into a small play ground? After all some vested interest must have been at work of which we are not aware.
Not to speak of urban hospitals even rural hospitals which are generally smaller than urban hospitals have been raised on large plots of land just because in the long run, expansion has to take place and more facilities are to be provided to the people. 40 bedded CHC Basohli has come up on 52 kanals and 2 marlas. Similarly, CHC Khour has 12 kanals and 10 marlas of land and CHC Chenani has 21 kanals of land. What was the compulsion for the Government to build the large maternity hospital only in Gandhi Nagar and not slightly away where adequate land could be acquired to work out a well-considered plan. Owing to paucity of land, authorities decided to provide underground parking. But that does not solve the problem because of shortage of space. The underground parking cannot accommodate the vehicles of the staff not to speak of visitors, patients and others.
The futuristic status of the 200-bedded maternity hospital does not inspire hope and satisfaction. From environmental point of view also, the site where the hospital has been raised is hardly acceptable. Acute vehicular traffic, narrow drainage, narrow roads all doesn’t favour establishing a hospital at the selected site. Furthermore did the Health Department obtain certification from geologists that the site selected is suitable for building a big hospital. We learn from reliable sources that requisite formalities have not been completed, and necessary certification has not been obtained. It is very curious and unheard of that a hospital of such dimensions and capacity comes up without having completed all the formalities before commencing the building. The work on the hospital was started in the year 2012-13 by the J&K Housing Board but finally the 50-crore project landed into the basket of Roads and Buildings Department. The project was scheduled to be brought to completion by the end of 2014-15 financial year but having expended nearly 40 crore rupees, the hospital is still in doldrums. Officials of the Department of Health say that funds have not been released and the work remains pending. Non-release of funds is the patent argument in such cases. Funds are normally released when portions of work are completed. We are unable to anticipate what action the Government is likely to take to extend the space for the hospital. Is that option open to the Government or is it closed, one cannot say. The Government should clarify the confusion and State its position as to what it thinks about this unplanned project.
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