IN WHAT raises questions of conflict of interest, the Chhattisgarh government, in an unusual move, plans to take over, via a law, a financially-strapped medical college owned by a family into which Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s daughter has married.
The state government is working on a Bill to acquire privately-owned Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Medical College in Durg. This college is owned by Chandulal Chandrakar Memorial Hospital (CCMH), an unlisted private company, registered in March 1997.
Chandulal Chandrakar was a Congress leader, a five-term Lok Sabha MP from Durg, and a Union minister in the past. He died in 1995. The hospital was promoted in his memory by the Chandrakar community, and the Director of CCMH is Mangal Prasad Chandrakar. He is one of the 59 shareholders, holding about 4% in the company.