Kasaragod: NRI healthcare entrepreneur Abdul Latheef 'Uppala', who runs nearly 30 hospitals in West Asian countries and India, said he will not invest in Kerala anymore after Health Minister Veena George skipped the inauguration of his hospital in Kasaragod.
Latheef said he invested Rs 100 crore to build Wintouch Multispecialty Hospital and advanced the date for the inauguration for the convenience of the minister, but she skipped the event despite being in the district. "We just wanted five minutes of her time. We feel humiliated and demoralised. This will be my last project in Kerala," he said after the event.
Latheef runs Badr al Samaa Group of Hospitals in Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the UAE, owns Indiana Hospital and Heart Institute in Mangaluru, runs several other hospitals, schools, and colleges, and has interests in the real estate and jewellery business.
He said his group wanted a representative of the state government to inaugurate the hospital to encourage other investors to invest in Kerala.
Latheef said Udma MLA and CPM state committee member C H Kunhambu and IUML MLAs N A Nellikkunnu and A K M Ashraf had pressed him to start a multispecialty hospital in Kasaragod after the Karnataka government blocked the roads to Mangaluru and denied treatment to patients from Kasaragod during the Covid pandemic. "We kept our word with Wintouch hospital," he said.
He said he had gotten in touch with the three MLAs to get the date of the Health Minister for the inauguration. "Udma MLA coordinated it. A K M Ashraf also intervened and we were told that the minister would be in Kasaragod on November 13," he said.
Five days ago, Latheef was told that the minister was coming to Kasaragod on November 9. "So we advanced the inauguration of the hospital to November 9 from 13 for her convenience," he said.
On Wednesday, November 8, Latheef and other members of the management held a press conference and announced that the Health Minister would inaugurate the hospital.
But by Wednesday evening, the minister's office contacted Latheef and said Veena George would not attend the event. "We just needed five minutes of her time. If she had said in advance that she could not come, we could have brought the Union minister or IUML leaders from the Thangal family," he said.
He said some media reported that the Health Minister was coming to Kasaragod to inaugurate a private hospital. "That is wrong. We were changing our dates for the convenience of the minister," he said. "How can a party such as CPM get swayed by media reports?"
Latheef said the minister's actions were not in sync with the state government's policy of attracting investment from NRIs.
In the recent Rising Kasaragod Investment Summit organised by the District Panchayat, Latheef promised to start a medical college in Kasaragod. "I was not bluffing. I have set up 29 hospitals. But I have had enough. No more investment in Kerala," he said.
Manjeshwar MLA A K M Ashraf said he spoke with the minister and she had agreed to come for the event.
Veena George was in Kasaragod to visit and take stock of the conditions at the Taluk Hospitals, District Hospital, and General Hospital.
At the General Hospital, she was confronted by a college student for coming to Kasaragod to inaugurate a private hospital when there was no progress in the construction work of the medical college at Ukkinadka in Badiadka grama panchayat. Veena George told the student: "I have not come to inaugurate any multispecialty hospital. I don't know who told you this!"
