Why stop non-veg food sale at hospital, asks Meghalaya party

Shillong, Nov 15 : Meghalaya's opposition Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP) on Wednesday voiced concern at "stopping" of sale of non-vegetarian food at the government-owned North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS).

In a letter to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda, HSPDP legislator Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit said sale of non-vegetarian food at the super specialty hospital has been stopped since D.M. Thappa joined as Director of the medical institute.

"The public has approached us (HSPDP) and vented their anger. We have sent our investigating team and found some truth in it. This is ill-founded on the part of the Director of NEIGRIHMS," Basaiawmoit said.

"This is an attack on the food habits of the indigenous people of northeast and has not been taken in good taste," the HSPDP legislator wrote.

Condemning this act, Basaiawmoit urged Nadda to direct the institute authorities to restore the sale of non-vegetarian food at the food outlets in NEIGRIHMS.

NEIGRIHMS has been designed on the lines of the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, and Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh.

The hospital was built at an estimated cost of Rs 420 crore and has a 30-bed Intensive Care Unit and 35 specialty and super specialty departments.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had declared NEIGRIHMS a national institute on January 22, 2000, when he visited Shillong.