The LaMo factor: After taking Modi's wife to hospital, Raje govt inked deal with it

The Lalit Modi-Sushma Swaraj controversy has snowballed into an even bigger mess for the BJP as the former IPL chief released documents which allege that even the Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje helped him by supporting his application for immigration to the UK in 2011. [caption id=“attachment_2299152” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP image[/caption] And now there’s a fresh link with the former IPL chief which will trouble the Rajasthan Chief Minister. The Raje government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Portugal hospital where Modi’s wife had been treated. The government had signed an MoU with Lisbon-based Champalimaud Foundation and it had been done in the presence of the Chief Minister. Modi said in an interview to India Today that Raje herself had accompanied his wife to the hospital in 2012-13 when he couldn’t. However, Rajasthan Health Minister Rajendra Singh said the state government had been unaware that Modi’s wife had been treated at that hospital at time of signing the MoU. “We were not aware that Lalit Modi’s wife was treated at the same Portuguese hospital with which Rajasthan government signed an agreement,” he was quoted as saying by Indian Express. The MoU had been signed on 2 October, 2014, two months after Modi’s wife underwent treatment for cancer in the hospital. Champalimaud Foundation is a private Portuguese biomedical research organisation. The MoU had been signed to set up a state-of-the-art cancer institute in Jaipur. The Raje government had also allotted 34,400 square metre plot of land in the Rajasthan Health Science Universityin Jaipur for the institute. It had also been decided that the cancer centre will have 200 beds and 700 people will be employed for its maintenance. The MoU was signed by Rajasthan’s Principal Secretary, Medical Education JC Mahanti, and the Foundation’s Executive Director, Joao Botelho, in the presence of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who had said that the cancer centre will benefit the state hugely, particularly those who cannot bear hefty cost of treatment. “The cooperation in this regard will also bolster relations with Portugal,” Raje had said in a statement. “People suffer a major psychological blow when they come to know about this disease. For laymen, its cure is expensive. “Lots of people go to Mumbai and other places for treatment even though they cannot afford its cost and it is a very frightening experience for them. Now after the opening of the cancer institute in Jaipur, they will get good treatment here,” she had said. “Our target is to complete the construction work by October 2016. The cost of the project is Rs 120 crore for the cancer centre. The training of doctors and purchase of equipment will go simultaneously to save time. It will be 120-bed cancer centre,” The Times of India had quoted JC Mahanti as saying. Leonor Beleza, President of the Champlimaud Foundation, had said that the institute will help people of the state immensely. The Champlimaud Foundation had also offered to extend technical support in designing the infrastructure of the centre and also assist in finalising specifications and selection of equipments for diagnosis, treatment and research. with inputs from PTI