Roman Catholic Church plans to set up a state-of-the-art engineering and law college in the State has hit land acquisition hurdle. Cardinal Telesphore P Toppo, who was in city to participate in a function to mark sacerdotal (priesthood) golden jubilee of Father Camille Ratnakar Prabhu, director of Catholic Charities and Samekit Jan Vikas Kendra, at St Joseph’s Cathedral in Golmuri, said that land acquisition is posing a hurdle in their dream project. The proposal for an engineering and law colleges has already been submitted to the Government last year but no progress has been made in this regard due to land acquisition hurdles.
“It is our dream project and we want to provide better opportunities in the State. We are trying at our best for adequate land to establish engineering and a law college but unfortunately we have not achieved much success. We are hopeful that the present government under the leadership of Raghubar Das will help us in getting land to set up higher education center to benefit the tribal population,” said Toppo.
Cardinal Telesphore Toppo expressed confidence that pooling in finance for the projects would not be a problem. “We are confident that funds will not be an issue. We want to uplift of poor through spreading higher education. We have started a state-of-the art medical college and hospital at Mandar near Ranchi in November last year,” the Cardinal added. He said
that they are confident the issues related to the college will be solved and the proposed project will be fulfilled. The college will prove a boon in higher education.
Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI- the apex policy-making body of the Roman Catholic Church in India) took over the 68-year-old Holy Family Hospital in Mandar. The proposed medical college and hospital is being called Constant lievens Academy of Health Sciences and Hospital.
“We decided to set up the medical college and hospital during CBCI general body meeting at XlRI Jamshedpur in 2008. It more than seven years to find land as several other plots selected by us in Khunti and other parts met with opposition. Finally, we zeroed up the hospital in Mandar along with contribution from our Ranchi diocese. Currently, the hospital project is on 29 acres of land while the Medical Council of India requirement is 25 acre. The first phase of converting the hospital into a 300-bed (currently 150-bed) will be completed in April 2016 and in the second phase we will start the college and convert the hospital into 500-bed,” said the Cardinal.
Meanwhile, the golden jubilee function of Father C R Prabhu (77 year), one of the first instances in Jamshedpur diocese of the Roman Catholic church, was attended by bishops and fathers from across the country at the cathedral.