In a bid to prove the ruling BJD's allegation of central negligence towards Odisha wrong, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today announced that Baripada would be included as the another venue for the medical college under Pradhan Manti Swastha Surakshya Yojana.
"The district headquarters hospital at Baripada in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district will be also upgraded to a medical college and hospital with Central assistance," Azad announced while inaugurating the AIIMS-Bhubaneswar at Sijua on the outskirts of the city here today.
Stating that the central govenrment has already announced to fund three medical colleges at Balasore, Bolangir and Koraput under PMSSY, Azad said, "I make the announcement to set a medical college at Baripada at the request of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Fertiliser Minister Srikant Jena."
Azad said Odisha now gets four medical colleges out of the total 50 medical colleges across the country under the PMSSY.
Under the PMSSY, district hospitals having 200 beds or above were being upgraded to medical colleges at an investment of Rs 189 crore each of which 75 per cent of cost will be given by the Centre.
Earlier, protesting the denial of a medical college to Baripada allegedly by the Centre, Odisha's BJD government took no time and announced to set up the facility in Mayurbhanj district. The people of Baripada had also observed a bandh demanding protesting denial of a medical college by the centre.
Besides an additional medical college at Baripada, Azad also announced that two government run medical colleges- VSS Medical College Hospital in Burla and MKCG Medical College Hospital in Brahmapur, will be converted to super speciality hospitals with central assistance out of the 39 hospitals selected for the purpose in the entire country.
