Bhubaneswar: In a breather for Odisha Government, Supreme Court’s Mandate Oversight Committee on Sunday gave its green signal for intake of students at Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College in Baripada.
The process for admission of 100 MBBS undergraduate seats for the 2017-18 academic sessions can now be expedited, said Health Minister Pratap Jena.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has also welcomed the decision to grant permission for admissions in Baripada Medical College.
"Welcome the grant of Permission by Supreme Court's Oversight Committee to Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College and Hospital, Baripada ," Patnaik said through a tweet.
"The college though ready was not being inspected by MCI. Happy that now we can bring advanced health care to the people of Mayurbhanj", he further mentioned.
Earlier, uncertainty had loomed large over the admissions owing to the tug of war between Odisha Government and Medical Council of India (MCI) over non-issuance of Letter of Permission (LoP).
Also Read Baripada Medical College row: MCI team to visit campus soon
In a letter to Secretary, Supreme Court Mandate Oversight committee, Shesh Kumar, Odisha Health Secretary P.K. Meherda had sought intervention of the panel for appropriate measures against the injustice done by MCI.
Odisha had earlier sought LoP for two medical colleges—Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College, Baripada and Saheed Laxman Nayak Medical College and Hospital, Koraput in June 2016.
MCI team had subsequently taken stock of infrastructure, construction works and other facilities at both the upcoming medical colleges in December last year. Though MCI team visited Koraput, the scheduled visit for inspection of infrastructure at Baripada Medical was not taken up.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik during his meeting with Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, had urged for letter of permission (LOP) for the two medical colleges at Baripada and Koraput for starting the first batch of admission from 2017-18 session.
Another reminder in this regard was also sent by the State Government on April 27 for MCI inspection and LoP.
Senior officials had also taken up the matter with Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda at a high level meeting held at New Delhi on May 11 in presence of Union Minister Dharemendra Pradhan.
Meanwhile, Health minister Pratap Jena expressed pleasure over the permission of apex court panel. "We thank the Supreme Court oversight committee for giving permission to start admission in the 2017-18 academic session", Jena said.