Demand for second AIIMS in Odisha grows louder, Congress hits the streets in Sundargarh

By Express News Service

ROURKELA: The demand for a second AIIMS in Odisha grew louder with the Sundargarh District Congress Committee (SDCC) on Saturday observing a dawn-to-dusk bandh at Sundargarh district headquarters city throwing regular life out of substances.

The shutdown name evoked a spontaneous response with retailers and enterprise institutions remaining closed, whereas business autos stored off the roads. The SDCC members picketed authorities workplaces and received them closed.

The Congress protest got here after the Health and Family Welfare division as per the MoU with the NTPC initiated the method to run the newly-constructed NTPC Medical College & Hospital (NTPCMCH) at Sankara and take admission from the 2022-23 tutorial yr.

Earlier, the outgoing Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy, in November 2020, had moved the second AIIMS proposal to the Centre stating the NTPC MCH constructed at a price of Rs 418 crore with provisions for 500 beds and 100 MBBS seats may very well be utilized for the aim.

Last month, the Director of Medical Education & Training too had mooted it reiterating the state authorities’s view for the necessity for an AIIMS at Sundargarh city. In April a central workforce had visited the NTPCMCH for a feasibility examine, however there was no announcement from the Ministry of Health.

SDCC President BM Tripathy stated the NTPC MCH, if run by the state authorities, wouldn’t be of any assist for the disadvantaged huge tribal and rural inhabitants of the area.

“The NTPC MCH under the state government would be another VIMSAR, which is plagued by a staff crunch and lacks super-speciality departments forcing critical patients to travel 300 km to get treated at Cuttack or Bhubaneswar. Sundargarh District Headquarter Hospital (SDHH) has been facing acute shortage of doctors too,” he identified.

If accredited, the AIIMS can guarantee tertiary and high quality well being care to the poor rural and tribal inhabitants of not solely the western Odisha area, but in addition the neighbouring districts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, Tripathy added.

The Congress additionally accused the Centre and state authorities of displaying a step-motherly mindset in direction of the superior healthcare wants of western Odisha districts. Two days in the past, the Sundargarh District Bar Association had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the problem requesting his intervention.