City-based voluntary organisation Jana Mancha demanded a medical college for Dhenkanal. The forum proposed that the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) could be upgraded to a medical college with improved infrastructure.
Claiming that the hospital fulfils all the criteria imposed by Union Health Ministry for upgradation to a medical college, Manch convenor advocate Manoranjan Pattnaik demanded that the number of bed in the DHH be increased to 200 and after being modernized, it should be shifted to the 10 acres of land already leased out for the hospital at Dakhinakali. Pattnaik urged local MP Tathagat Satpathy, former Union Minister KP Singh Deo and former Rajya Sabha Member Rudra Narayan Pany to take up the issue with the Union and State Governments.