The newly-established Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College & Hospital here seems to be running into trouble. This is evident after the Assembly House Committee’s visit here on Thursday.
Though the State Government had earlier announced that admissions to both Baripada Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College and Koraput Sahid laxman Nayak Medical College would start from this academic session, the situation vis-à-vis the Baripada college appears bleak, whereas the Koraput college is progressing well along expected lines.
While an expert team of the Medical Council of India (MCI) on April 11 inspected the Koraput college and subsequently issued the much-required letter of Permission (lOP), things have not moved ahead for the Baripada college. The team neither visited Baripada in April nor has it given the college any lOP so far.
It is against this backdrop that the House Committee paid an urgent visit to the Baripada college to assess the ground situation. The members of the committee reportedly found the infrastructural facilities to be inadequate as construction work is still incomplete in some departments. On December 22 last year, an MCI team had visited the Baripada college and reviewed the preparedness for beginning of classes from this academic session. The team had then advised the concerned authorities to speed up all activities for compliance of all rules and norms set by the MCI so that admission could start as expected.