Bhubaneswar: The proposed Medical College and Hospital (MCH) at Sundargarh will start functioning from the next academic session 2022-23, Health Minister Naba Das told the Assembly on Monday.
Making a statement in the House this morning, Das said the medical college being set up with support of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) will function with 100 MBBS seats while the hospital will have 500 beds.
The Government has also created 160 teaching posts, 85 non-teaching posts, 10 posts for the office of the dean & principal and 16 posts for the office of superintendent for the medicinal college, he informed.
The State Government had signed a memorandum of understanding with the NTPC in December, 2013 to set up this medical college with a preliminary estimation of Rs 350 crore. For this, the State has provided 21 acres of land free of cost, he said.
Following the demand of politicians, intellectuals, lawyers and the general public of western Odisha, the State chief secretary in November last year wrote a letter to the Union health secretary requesting for establishment of a second AIIMS at the infrastructure developed by NTPC for the proposed medical college, the minister informed the House. At present, the State has one AIIMS at Bhubaneswar.
“Later on March 15, 2021, I requested the Union health minister to set up the second AIIMS of Odisha at Sundergarh,” he said.
In April this year, the Union health ministry had sent a Central team to make field verification of the proposed medical college and they have expressed satisfaction. The team had raised the requirement of 200 acres of land to set up the AIIMS, he further said.
The minister said the State government can provide required land and financial assistance from district mineral fund (DMF) for establishing an AIIMS.
The State director of medical education and training had also submitted a proposal to the members of the Central team in April last. However, the Union government has not given any reply to this proposal of the State, even after five months, he pointed out.
“If the Centre decides to set up the AIIMS at Sundergarh, the State government will provide all necessary support for it,” Das assured.
Meanwhile, Sundargarh MLA Kusum Tete (BJP) reacted to this statement of Das and said there was no synergy between State government’s announcement and its action.
She demanded that the Chief Minister should write to the Government of India over the proposed AIIMS.