The Cabinet of Ministers today approved to have the government take over the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital attached to the contentious South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM).

On April 7, the government issued a statement making known its intention to take over the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital as part of a series of proposed solutions to the long-drawn issue of the validity of SAITM.

Local university students and a number of other trade unions such as the Government Medical Officers’ Union (GMOA) are protesting against SAITM, calling it a ‘hora upadee kade’ and demanding the campus is shut down.