Investors wary of investing in NE due to insurgency: Lapang

Major potential investors, who had shown interest to make investment in Meghalaya, are turning back from their commitment due to the insurgency problem in the North-East region, according to Chief Minister DD Lapang.

“There is a need to ward off the fear psychosis among people from outside about the North East region by taking the responsibility of improving the law-and-order situation,” Lapang said at a function.

Lapang cited the example of North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) which was facing difficulties in recruiting faculty staff as qualified persons are reluctant to apply for jobs in the institution due to threat perceived by them about Meghalaya, and the North East in general.

He said the institute had advertised over six times to fill around 300 plus vacancies of faculty staff last year but only 60 candidates came forward to apply against those vacancies.

After threadbare discussion on the problem, the State Government has decided to seek the help of AIIMS, Christian Medical College, Vellore and other renowned hospitals in the country to set up consultation centre by NEIGRIHMS,” the Chief Minister stated.

In fact, some of these hospitals had sent a team of specialists, led by the Joint Secretary of the Union Health Ministry on January 10 last. They inspected the hospital to explore ways to solve the acute need of trained specialists.

NEIGRIHMS is an autonomous institute established by Government of India in 1987 under the Meghalaya Registration of Societies Act 1983.

NEIGRIHMS is a Rs 422.60 crore project spread over a sprawling 306 acres in Mawdiangdiang area here. It has been functioning in a slow pace since the last two years even as it awaits the formal inauguration, which has been deferred indefinitely.

With 330 of the total 500 beds already put in place, the multi-specialty institute is facing a shortage of over 130 doctors. Some departments like Nephrology are yet to have a single specialist doctor.

Unattractive pay-packages and lack of future prospects in the region are two other reasons for the doctors being averse to practising.

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