Chennai:
The three-century old Government General Hospital, where Rajiv Gandhi's body was brought soon after his assassination at Sriperumpudur in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991, would be named after the late Prime Minister.
Chief Minister M Karunanidhi made this announcement in the State Assembly after accepting a plea by Congress whip S Peter Alphones in this regard.
Congressmen in the state had been demanding that the hospital be named after the former Prime Minister.
The hospital, one of the premier institutions in the country, was started on 16th November 1664 to treat sick soldiers of the East India Company.
It was due to the efforts of Sir Edward Winter, who was the agent of the company, that the institute was developed as the first British Hospital in the city.
In its early days the hospital was housed at Fort St George and in the next 25 years grew into a formal medical facility.
Governor Sir Elihy Yale was instrumental in the development of the hospital and gave it a new premise within the Fort in 1690. Later it was shifted to bigger space.