Governor Shekhar Dutt on Saturday said that the doctors, who studied in Pt Jawahar lal Nehru Memorial Medical College (JNMMC) here and have been working in the country and abroad, should jointly make efforts to make it the best college of the nation.

If all the doctors make efforts, it would be the best medical college of the country.  The doctors who have passed out from the college and are working abroad will also enlighten the name of JNMMC through their honest and noble profession, he said while inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of JNMMC here.

While greeting all the doctors who reached here to attend the programme, the Governor said that he was the Commissioner of Raipur, 27 years ago, when the 25th anniversary of JNMMC was celebrated. “Now, many changes have taken place here, according to the time. Changes have come in the health sector of the State. The Government has launched several schemes in the sector.”

Even then, he observed that something should be done for the diabetic patients. A separate department for diabetics would be opened in the college.

The Governor said that efforts would be made to provide better health facilities at all the small and big hospitals of the State, so that people might not wander here and there.  He stressed on to work for increasing the average lifespan of people of the State to 77 years, like Kerala, and said it would be possible with the efforts of all.

Presiding over the function, Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh said, “It is a matter of pleasure that doctors have come here from within and outside the country to participate in the 50-year journey of the medical college.”

He said that it was the privilege for some and misfortune for many others that he had become Chief Minister of the State for the third time. The cooperation of doctors has also been behind his victory. It was a good opportunity that the pass-outs of this college have come here with great memories. They have enlightened the name of JNMMC in the country and abroad, he added.

Raman also said that in the course of time changes would come in human thoughts, but the doctor remains the same. Earlier, Chhattisgarh had been the State of exodus. lakhs of people had deserted the State, and now their number has come down to thousands. Everything changed here in the course of time, he added.

Praising the Food Security Scheme, the Chief Minister said that rice at lowest price has been distributed to the 56 lakh families of the State. With this, the State got a separate identity in the country.

Mentioning on the Naxalite problem, the Chief Minister said that the incidents are less in comparison to earlier time. There were no communal riots. People here work together and want development of the state.

Talking about the work done in the Health sector, the chief minister said that now there are four medical colleges and in the time to come four-five more colleges would be opened.

However, he admitted that there was lack of specialist doctors. Singh asked the doctors to give suggestions for a change in the health sector and to work in the state. Naya Raipur is being developed where they would get every facility, he added.

Professor of Nuclear Medicine Dr RD lele, Orthopaedic Specialist Dr SS Yadav, former director of AIIMS Delhi Dr A Sampat, Radiologist Dr Cl Khetrapal, Health Minister Amar Agrawal, Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal, PWD minister Rajesh Munat, MP Ramesh Bais, DME Dr Subir Mukherjee, Dean Dr Ashok Chandrakar, Dr Anil Verma, Dr Manik Chatterjee, Dr Arvind Neral, Dr Suraj Agrawal and others were prominent among the participants.