Odisha to set up health university

With Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College in Baripada and Saheed Laxman Naiak Medical College in Koraput set to start functioning from this academic session, Jena said "We will have seven more government medical colleges in the coming days."

Replying to a question, Jena said the capacity of producing medical undergraduates has increased to 650 from 450 earlier. There has been increase in the numbers of undergraduate seats from 150 to 250 in two medical colleges in Cuttack and Berhampur. However, the state run medical college in Burla continued to have 150 MBBS seats.

"With admission of 100 undergraduate students each in the medical colleges in Baripada and Koraput in the 2017-18 academic session, the total number of MBBS seats in Odisha will climb to 850," Jena said.

He said the number of PG seats in three medical colleges have increased to 118 during the last five years.

Jena also claimed that the state government had been working in a planned manner to ensure that remote areas also get doctors.

State ST, SC Development, Minority and Backward Classes Welfare minister Ramesh Chandra Maji claimed the Odisha government is first in the country to make elaborate arrangements for education of tribal, dalit and backward class students.

Besides raising the amount of stipends for tribal and dalit students, the state government has set up 6,000 hostels to house 5.5 lakh students, he said.

"No state in the country has constructed such a huge number of hostels for the tribal and dalit students," Majhi said adding, the Naveen Patnaik government has launched a scheme under which ST and SC students are being imparted coaching for technical education.