Several social media users called out Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President Jagat Prakash Nadda for claiming 95 per-cent of the work to construct the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Madurai has been completed.
Visuals from Thoppur near Madurai, Tamil Nadu showed a vacant plot with only a boundary wall at the site where the AIIMS Madurai is set to be be built.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences to be built at Thoppur near Madurai at a cost of ₹ 1,264 crore, in January 2019. Read more about it here.
JP Nadda made the claim while speaking at a meeting with industrialists in Madurai on September 22, 2022 while on a two-day visit to Madurai and Sivaganga.
"...today 95% of the work of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences has (been) completed. Very soon it will be dedicated by the prime minister to the people," BJP President JP Nadda said.
Watch the below YouTube video from 10.14 timestamp.
Nadda's remarks were also reported by news outlets.
In another public address at Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, Nadda spoke about AIIMS Madurai again but did not provide any timeline.
"Today I am happy to share with you that 1225 crore have been spent for this 750 bedded All India Institute of Medical Sciences, which has got 250 ICU beds. And you will be happy to note that 164 crore additional fund has been given for Madurai...for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences," he said.
Watch from 57.04 timestamp.
The same claim was reiterated by Sunil Deodhar, National Secretary, BJP, Co-Incharge, Andhra Pradesh.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the claim made by BJP President JP Nadda that 95% work of AIIMS Madurai has been completed is false.
We found an archive of a deleted tweet by BJP's Tamil Nadu unit BJP4TamilNadu which quoted JP Nadda as saying 95% construction of AIIMS Madurai was complete.
The tweet in Tamil is translated as below.
"Madurai AIIMS Hospital construction work is 95% complete. The number of seats for admission in AIIMS Medical College has also been increased from one hundred to two hundred and fifty. Prime Minister will inaugurate AIIMS after completion of construction work..! - National President Mr. @JPNadda"
The BJP's Tamil Nadu unit later tweeted that Nadda said "95% of preliminary work required for AIIMS construction to start soon," after being called out by social media users.
The snippet used in the Sun News video clip is from Nadda's speech at Karaikudi where he spoke about AIIMS Madurai but did not make any mention of the construction work.
Satellite Imagery Shows Vacant Plot
Satellite imagery of the location on Google Maps from 2022 still shows a vacant plot.
Construction Yet To Begin Until August
In August this year, news outlet The Print visited the site and found construction was yet to begin.
"When ThePrint visited the Madurai site, it saw tall compound walls with barbed wires cordoning off the barren land allocated for the AIIMS campus," the article stated.
Opposition Leaders Visit Site
Meanwhile opposition leaders belonging to the CPI-M and Congress who visited the site launched a scathing attack on JP Nadda and the BJP.
Su Venkatesan, a Member of Parliament from Madurai constituency tweeted photos of himself and Virudhunagar MP and Congress leader B Manickam Tagore, at the site.