The North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) has failed to ready a facility that was to be handed over to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) for a proposed model rural health research unit (MRHRU).

NBMCH authorities had on 8 May claimed that they would hand over the three-storied building today.

A visit to the building used as the record section today revealed stacks of papers piled on the second floor. An employee was supervising their arrangements of those.

“We have been asked by the NBMCH authorities to clear the floor within a few days,” the employee said.

According to NBMCH superintendent Dr Sanjay Mallik, work was underway to rearrange the important documents. Dr Mallik said he was hopeful that the building would be handed over within this month.

There had been allegations against the NBMCH of delay in handing over the facility to the ICMR-NICED after completion of the necessary formalities.

NBMCH patient welfare committee chairman Gautam Deb had said on 8 May that the building would be handed over on 15 May, after a meeting with the ICMRNICED representatives and NBMCH authorities.

“The process is on to vacate the building for the MRHRU. The second floor is used to maintain all the records of the hospital including, the wards, births, deaths. Police records are also maintained there. We have already vacated the ground floor and first floor. Therefore, it is taking some time, because we are working carefully so that no record is misplaced. We are hopeful about handing over the building within this month,” Dr Mallik said.

NBMCH sources said that a few months ago, the ICMRNICED had sought the ground and first floors, but later the second floor was added to this.

Sources at the ICMRNICED said that following the handover, the Central Public Works Department will undertake the infrastructure development work there. Once functional, the MRHRU will conduct medical research oriented work and play an important role if there is emergence of an outbreak of any unknown disease in the region.