While the Talcher-Angul region has emerged as the most critically-polluted region of the country resulting in unprecedented health disasters in the area, the utter negligence of the Government to open the much-awaited Mahanadi Medical College at Talcher has created widespread resentment among people. 

 “Though the Odisha Government and the MCL inked an agreement in 2014 for the Mahanadi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (MIMSAR) at Talcher in Angul district and completed the development of infrastructure in 2018, still MIMSAR could not be started yet dut to negligence of the State Government. This has seriously affected the health service of this polluted region," said Citizens’ Action Forum (CAF) president Rabindra Prasad Pattanaik.

The MCL has spent over Rs 500 crore to build the institution on 20 acres of land granted by the State Government. The hospital will have 500 beds and the medical college will have 100 seats for MBBS admission per year. The MCL will also contribute funding to the medical college and hospital's services. 
   
Coalmining operation, thermal power plants, aluminum and steel plants, ancillary industries and construction activities have led to significant degradation of the ambient air quality of Angul Talcher area. Due to dust and air pollution, diseases like tuberculosis, asthma, fluorosis, bronchitis, thyroid and stomach ailments have become endemic, Pattanaik added. He urged the Government to immediately develop health infrastructure including operation of the medical college in Talcher. 

 “ Apart from it , the State Government must come forward to implement the “Right to Health Bill" in which every resident of the State will have the right to emergency treatment and care without prepayment at any public health institution, healthcare establishment and healthcare centers," told Pattanaik.