Ch’garh Legislative Assembly approves Medical College Acquisition Bill amidst vote division

Raipur, Jul 29: Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Medical College Acquisition Bill 2021 has been passed in the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly amidst protest from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here on Thursday.
After the opposition BJP MLA Brijmohan Agrawal sought vote division on the amendments to proposed Bill, 56 members of the ruling Congress rejected the amendment proposal to give approval to the Bill after heated debate among the members. 16 Member supported the amendments in the 90-member Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly.
It is notable that Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday tabled a bill in the state Assembly for acquiring a private medical college in Durg district, even as the opposition BJP has earlier alleged that the acquisition move was aimed at favouring people linked to the institute, whose management includes members of a family in which Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s daughter is married.
State Health and Family Welfare Minister T S Singh Deo tabled the bill to acquire Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Medical College in Kachandur village of the district and said urgent acquisition of the college is required in the interest of people.
According to the bill that is titled Chhattisgarh Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Medical College, Durg (Acquisition) Bill, 2021, the state government will appoint a special officer to conduct a valuation of all the movable and immovable properties of the college for payment against acquisition and the payable amount considering the inevitability of the acquisition would be double of the actual valuation amount.
No other amount will be payable to any living or legal person for any property, the draft said.
The government shall not be liable to any liability pending on its management towards any living or legal person prior to acquisition. The liabilities of the college prior to vesting in the government shall continue to be the liabilities of its former owners and may be recovered from them by the lenders through normal procedures of law, it said.
Any person who had been serving in the college before vesting in the government will not make any claim for job to the government after acquisition. Any payment or salary due to such a person will not be made by the government and they can claim from the former owners, a provision of the bill said.
Replying to the demands of the BJP members, the Minister for Health & Family Welfare TS Singhdeo made it clear that the state government would not be accountable for the employees.