Bhubaneswar: A day after the Centre approved three new medical colleges for Odisha, representatives of the people of Mayurbhanj district today asked the UPA government to set up another medical college at Baripada.
"We demand a medical college in Mayurbhanj district which is the biggest tribal district in the country," state government deputy chief whip Sanjay Dasburma told reporters here.
Accompanied by handloom and textile minister Sarojini Hembram, Mayurbhanj MP Laxman Tudu, former minister and Morada MLA Praveen Chandra Bhanj Deo, Dasburma said the state government had earlier requested the Centre to set up four medical colleges in the state,s including one in Mayurbhanj district under the centrally sponsored Prime Minister Swasthya Surakhsa Yojana (PMSSY).
The leaders pointed out that though the Centre approved three medical colleges one each at Balasore, Bolangir and Koraput, it denied the facility for Mayurbhanj.
According to the provisions of PMSSY, the district headquarters hospitals having more than 200 beds are considered for upgradation to medical colleges.
Though the state government had agreed to meet the requirements for setting up a medical college in Mayurbhanj, the Centre denied the facility for the tribal people, Dasburma alleged, adding, that the chief minister in a letter to Union Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad on March 8, 2013, had requested for four medical colleges in the state.