Archive for March, 2018
Odisha govt signs MoU with Vedanta for medical college in Kalahandi
Following is a report from the http://odishasuntimes.com :
Kalahandi: The Odisha government today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Vedanta Group, a globally diversified natural resources company, to set up a 500-bedded medical college and hospital in Bhawanipatna in the district.
The tribal-dominated district had hit the headlines of national and international media and caused embarassement to the State government for its poor healthcare facilities after the Dana Majhi episode in August, 2016.
The MoU was signed in presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and State Health and Family Welfare Minister Pratap Jena.
Sonamali Bag, Director of Medical Education & Training (DMET) of the State government and Rahul Sharma, Director of Corporate Strategy at Vedanta, signed the agreement.
As per the agreement, total Rs 350 crore will be invested for setting up the proposed medical college, of which Vedanta will spend around Rs 100 crore.
While the State government will run the medical college and hospital, Vedanta will develop infrastructure support for it.
Official sources said as many as 100 MBBS seats will be available in the medical college.
The Chief Minister has directed the Family and Welfare Department to start the construction work of the proposed medical college soon and complete as early as possible.
Chief Secretary AP Padhi, Development Commissioner R Balkrishnan, MLAs of Kalahandi district among other officials were present.
Notably, in April last year, the CM had announced to set up new medical colleges at Koraput, Mayurbhanj, Puri, Bolangir, Balasore, Kalahandi and Keonjhar to tide over the shortage of doctors in the State.
Patnaik had laid the foundation stone of the medical college at Bhangabari in Bhawanipatna, the district headquarters town of Kalahandi, in November 2016.
Ancient sculpture of Nataraja unearthed at Durgapali, Sambalpur
Following is a report from the TNIE:
SAMBALPUR: The recovery of an ancient stone sculpture of Nataraja at Dungrapali, located on downstream of Hirakud Dam, by teams of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is believed to throw more light on the flourishing Shaivism in the region.INTACH teams, who are documenting both tangible and intangible heritage along both sides of the Mahanadi river in the State, stumbled upon the ancient sculpture on the embankment of the Devi water body.
Lord Shiva is also known as Nataraja – the Cosmic Dancer. It is believed that the idol dates back to 7th or 8th century. The idol has been kept in the custody of the district Collector and will be put up for display in the new museum coming up at Sambalpur. Similarly, the top portion of old Gudeswar temple was also recovered and stored safely in the district collectorate. The recovery was made on the information of residents of Durgapali to the INTACH teams.
Historian and culture enthusiast Deepak Panda, who is leading the teams in Sambalpur, said it seems to be the ‘Chuda’ or ‘Amalaka’ of an ancient temple. It is four feet high, three feet wide and weighs around 200 kgs. Panda further informed that the idol reflects Lord Shiva in Tandava form and since it was protruding from earth, it is believed that there could be a temple beneath. A clear picture will emerge after excavation, he said.
He further revealed that many such ruins of temples, which have been collected by locals, are being studied. It is suspected that the temple of which the ruins belong may have been damaged by invaders, Panda said. Seven teams, which were flagged off by Chairman of INTACH LK Gupta on January 15, will document the heritage, bio-diversity and food habits of people residing along the banks of the Mahanadi. They will cover nearly 1,000 km on the both sides of the river from upper reaches of Hirakud to its merger with the Bay of Bengal near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur. The work also entails cultural mapping of Mahanadi, which has around 50 per cent of its total course flowing in Odisha. The team will cover undivided Sambalpur, Sonepur, Boudh, Angul, Nayagarh and Cuttack districts under the project.
Admission to Balangir Medical College will start from Sept 2018
Following is a report from the Telegraph:
Balangir: The state government has announced that admission to Balangir medical college would begin from the coming academic session.
The health and family welfare department’s commissioner-cum-secretary Pramod Meherda announced this on Thursday evening. Meherda, who is the nodal officer for Balangir, is on a tour of the district.
Earlier, delegates of various organisations of Balangir such as the Balangir Citizen Committee, Bhumika, Being Human and the Balangir Merchants’ Association met Meherda and raised the issue of the proposed college.
After a meeting with district collector N. Turumala Nayak, project director of the Balangir district rural development agency Maheswar Mallik and chief district medical officer Sugyanendra Mishra, Meherda told reporters that admission of the first batch of MBBS in Balangir medical college would commence from the coming session.
He said all preparations were going on to ensure that the college became functional from September. “Things are going pretty well, and we have enough time to complete the requisite works before the medical college becomes functional in September,” he said.
Meherda further said a Medical Council of India team had visited to take stock of the college infrastructure last year and would pay a visit again in April. “Last year, the council had visited the proposed college site to study its infrastructure. They would visit again in April,” Meherda said.Meherda also paid a visit to the 100-student strength medical college building and other infrastructures on the campus at Gandhrel, the site of the proposed college. He also visited the 300-bed hospital.The news has brought cheer among the aspirants, who are going to appear for the NEET, the national-level entrance test for admission into various medical colleges in the country.
Harish Rout, who would take the exam in May, said he was elated to hear that there would be admission in Balangir medical college in the coming session. “At last, the dream of the people of Balangir is going to be fulfilled,” he said. The UPA government at the Centre had in 2014 planned government medical colleges in four places in the state – Koraput, Balangir, Baripada and Balasore. Student admissions to the colleges in Koraput and Baripada had begun in the last academic session in 2017.
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