Appeal for medical centre on CUK campus

An action committee formed here recently to work for setting up a state-of-the-art medical institute proposed by the Central University of Kerala (CUK) on its Periye campus here has submitted a detailed memorandum to CUK Vice Chancellor G. Gopakumar.

The forum, the CUK Medical College Action Committee, led by former Vice Chancellor of the University of Kannur M.K. Abdul Khader submitted the memorandum to Dr. Gopakumar on Wednesday.

The district, which came into being in 1984, does not have a medical college of its own.

The forum thanked the Vice Chancellor for drawing the attention of Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu to the issue.

Project report

Dr. Gopakumar assured the action committee office-bearers that the university would prepare a project report after presenting the issue in the upcoming university executive committee meeting, Muhammed Nizar Peruvad, member of the forum said.

Dr. Gopakumar reminded the delegation that central universities had not set up institutions such as medical colleges anywhere else in the country.

But the project could be realised if a political consensus was reached on the matter.

The university has earmarked 50 acres of land for the medical college in its building master plan.

The university conducts inter-disciplinary research in Public Health Administration and Genomic Science. The research facilities would come in handy if the proposed advanced medical institute started functioning in the district.

The institute would also be beneficial to the endosulfan victims who suffered from a host of diseases, most of them undiagnosed, attributed to the indiscriminate aerial spraying of endosulfan in the State-owned cashew estates in the district, Dr. Gopakumar said.

The Vice Chancellor said the university had invited the attention of Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan to the need for earmarking 50 acres to help it improve its future infrastructure requirements.

Forum convener K. Sreekanth, office-bearers V. Gopinath, M.K. Radhakrishnan, V.V. Prabhakaran, Farooq Kasmi and Sherief Ahammed were part of the delegation.

Senior CUK officials, including executive council members K.C. Baiju and K. Jayaprasad; Registrar A. Radhakrishnan Nair; and Finance Officer B. Jayakumar; were present.