Early Times Report
srinagar, Feb 23: Jammu and Kashmir government might be claiming credit for setting up Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan at SK Institute of Medical Sciences Soura; but the fact is that Members of Parliament from across India contributed from their funds for this much need facility.
Surprisingly, not a single MP from State had paid any money for the PET scan.
After years of delay, the PET scan was inaugurated by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti at SKIMS Soura in first week of January this year.
The PET scan examination was announced in 2012 to upgrade the SKIMS capability to diagnose and treat the dreaded diseases, but due to the hospital administration mess and changing of locations, the PET scan was delayed.
While State government is seeking credit of installing the facility, the fact is that MPs from across the country had pooled funds for purchasing the PET scan machine.
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation New Delhi in 2015 had written to Director Perspective and Manpower Planning and Development Jammu and Kashmir about the details of 26 MPs, who contributed for the PET scan at SKIMS Soura. They contributed Rs 12 crore.
According to the letter available with Early Times, BJP MP Avinash Rai Khanna contributed Rs 10 lakh, B Jayashree Rs 50 lakh, C P Narayanan Rs 50 lakh, Dilibhai Pandya Rs 10 lakh, D Bandyopadhav Rs 30 lakh.
H K Dua had given Rs 100 lakh, Janardan Dwiwed Rs 10 lakh, Jharna Das Baidya Rs 50 lakh, K Parasaran Rs 100 lakh, Dr Karan Singh Rs 50 lakh.
M Venkiah Naidu, who is presently Vice-President had given Rs 25 lakh. Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had contributed Rs 50 lakh. Mohsina Kidwai Rs 100 lakh, P Kannan, P J Kurein, Parimal Nathwani, Parvez Hashmi, Pradip Bhattacharya, Rajkumar Dhoot AK Antony, Ashwini Kumar also contributed for the PET scan at SKIMS Soura. Besides, Rekha Ganeshan had contributed Rs 100 lakh, Sachin Tendulkar Rs 50 lakh, Sitaram Yechury Rs 50 lakh and T K Rangaranjan Rs 50 lakh.
However, none of the JK MPs contributed even a single penny for it. At the same time, the government has been claiming for setting up much needed PET scan facility at SKIMS Soura. "It took years to set up PET scan at SKIMS but actually the State government did nothing in this regard," an official said.
PET is a nuclear imaging technique that creates detailed, computerized pictures of organs and tissues inside the body.
The scan can be used to detect cancerous tissues and cells in the body that may not always be found through CT scan or MRI. |
