By Archis Chowdhury
While making an online address to the Panchayati Raj Parishad of West Bengal on August 12, 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that his Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government had opened multiple campuses of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in eastern India, including one in Bihar's Darbhanga.
BOOM found this claim to be false; according to a statement by BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Modi, the central government had found the land proposed by Bihar government to be unsuitable for a new AIIMS campus. This was also confirmed by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya himself, who shared a letter by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare dated May 26, 2023, which confirmed the centre's disapproval of the land suggested by the Bihar government.
These statements by members of Modi's party and cabinet confirm that the proposed AIIMS campus in Darbhanga is yet to be made.
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"For healthcare facilities, we have opened new AIIMS from Assam's Guwahati to Bengal's Kalyani, and from Jharkhand's Deoghar to Bihar's Darbhanga, so that people don't have to go 100s of KMs for treatments," Modi claimed during the address.
Modi's statement went viral on social media, with many opposition leaders challenging its veracity.
Congress leader Supriya Shrinate shared a clip from Modi's address, where he is making the above claim, with a Hindi caption that translates to English as, "Today again PM Modi was caught lying. Today said that AIIMS has been opened in Darbhanga. But in reality there is no AIIMS in Darbhanga. The Bihar government had sent a proposal after collecting 151 acres of land free of cost, but the Center has not given approval yet. Why does the Prime Minister lie so much?"
Bihar's Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav also questioned Modi's claim, and reitirated Shrinate's satement of central government's refusal at the suggested plot of land. He also added an official letter dated June 22, 2023 to Mandaviya, where he requests the reconsideration of the plot of land for constructing AIIMS in Darbhanga.
Fact Check
BOOM searched for official updates on the construction of AIIMS and found a press release by the MoHFW dated July 22, 2022, which gave updates on the setting up of AIIMS campuses around the country.
According to the response, "Encumbrance free land has not been handed over by State Govt." Furthermore, the response added that the timeline for completion would be "48 months from date of handing over of encumbrance free land by State Government".
Additionally, Yadav's tweet specifies that the handing over of 'encumbrance free land' has not yet happened, since the 151 acres plot recommended by the state government was not approved by the centre.
Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya himself responded to Yadav's tweet, providing a timeline of updates on the plot allocation for the campus in Darbhanga.
According to Mandaviya, the Modi-led central government gave its approval for building an AIIMS on September 19, 2020, and on November 3, 2021, the Bihar government, which at that time was formed with an alliance between BJP and the Janata Dal (United), allocated the first plot of land for its development.
Mandaviya then mentioned that the government then changed, after JD(U) broke its alliance with the BJP and formed a new government with Rashtriya Janata Dal led by Yadav (who then became the deputy CM), following which a new plot of land was proposed on April 30, 2023.
He then states that the central government found the new plot of land unsuitable for construction of AIIMS and rejected the proposal on May 26, 2023.
Mandaviya goes on to question the change of plot, and blamed the new government for the delay in land allocation. Click here to read the entire Twitter thread posted by Mandaviya.
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BJP leader and former Deputy CM of Bihar Sushil Modi also reiterated Mandaviya's statement, and blamed Bihar's CM Nitish Kumar for the AIIMS campus in Darbhanga not being constructed.
However, the statements by both the leaders, along with the written letters proving the lack of decision on the plot for AIIMS in Darbhanga, also confirm that Modi's claim of AIIMS being opened in Darbhanga is false.
