Chandigarh : Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Friday ordered a high-level probe into the three skill development centres lying idle since their set up in the medical colleges of Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot, at a cost of Rs 18 crore.
The three-member probe committee headed by principal secretary medical education and research Sanjay Kumar also include secretary skill development mission Bhawna Garg, and director research medical education Avnish Kumar.
The probe was ordered after complaints that these skill development centres were lying vacant and there were no students, while the private companies to whom prime government land had been provided to run skill development centres were violating their contract conditions. The Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) had invested Rs 6 crore each at government medical colleges of Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot for creation of infrastructure for these centres.
The chief minister, while chairing a meeting, also accepted the suggestion for implementing NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) standards in all government medical colleges and hospitals. On the issues of relaxation being sought by the PIMS Medical and Education Charitable (PMEC) Society in the concession agreement, chief minister directed the steering committee to re-look the issue in the light of fresh recommendations by the Vijay Kelkar committee on the public-private partnership (PPP) model before seeking a legal opinion. Ex-post facto approval was given to the appointment of Dr Vimal Sikri as director of the PIMS society.
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