Odisha HRD

12 years since initial work started; Balangir medical college project has very little progress

Following is from an article in Times of India.

Twelve years down the line since its establishment, the foundation structure of Balangir Medical College looks like an abandoned cemetery overridden with bushes and weeds. It was erected, if officials are to be believed, at a cost of Rs 27 lakh. The medical college was proposed by the Western Orissa Development Council (WODC) and was mooted in 1999 by the then chairman of the council, Narasingh Mishra. With WODC investing the money to establish the college, it was supposed to be owned by the government.

But work on the structure came to a halt in the year 2000 when Naveen Pattnaik came to power. …

"If at all the Balangir medical college is set up, it should be a government-owned college and not a private college because the poor people in this region can’t afford the health services to be offered by a private party," said Mishra. He further said he recently had a discussion with the Union minister of health, Vilasrao Deshmukh, who promised to take necessary steps to see that medical college is set up in Balangir soon.

… Interestingly, the WODC last year had signed an MoU with Pondicherry-based Balaji Trust to take up the project, but the work didn’t progress. This is the third time the state government has signed an MoU for Balangir Medical College. Earlier, it had entered into an agreement with Hyderabad-based GSL Trust and Gaziabad-based Jassore Dental, Medical Education Health Foundation. After delay in the start of work, the MoU was cancelled and RVS Educational Trust was selected as the private sponsor. The trust expressed its inability to execute the project on February 17, 2010.

The earlier two agencies were reluctant to start the project citing non-cooperation by the WODC. Later, the new chairman, however, promised that the college would have 50 per cent management seats and 50 per cent government seats, with a certain percentage reserved for local students. However, he couldn’t explain why the progress was so slow and why it was being entrusted to a private party.

"At present, there is no one expressing interest in constructing the medical college. Its status remains in a state of embargo and no further decision in this regard has been taken," said Niranjan Panda, present WODC chairman.

2 comments March 25th, 2011

Update on the Bhawanipatna Medical College

(Thanks to Kalahandia for the pointer.)

Following is from http://expressbuzz.com/states/orissa/medical-college-to-see-light-of-the-day/253254.html.

The last one year has rekindled hopes for Kalahandi waiting since long for a medical college as promised by the State Government. Sardar Raja Medical College at Jaring is expected to start functioning from 2012 academic year, the chief executive officer of the college Tarun Mishra announced at a press meet here.

The project got clearance from the State Government in 2004 after an MoU was signed with a private educational institute Salvam Educational and Charitable Trust, Tamil Nadu. The Revenue Department provided 25 acres at Jaring and Western Orissa Development Council released Rs10 crore for infrastructure development. Work soon picked up on the 300-bed hospital, college and hostel buildings.

However, the project suffered a setback with the chairman of the trust entangled in a legal battle in Tamil Nadu. The long court battle had raised doubts about the future of the project. Last year, the college also failed to get a nod from the Medical Council of India mostly due to lack of adequate number of doctors, staff and some basic infrastructure. This had led to resentment among the locals.

With the charges against the chairman of the trust dropped, the project witnessed some positive development this year.

Mishra said that the infrastructure as pointed out by MCI has been put in place. The Health and Family Welfare Department has already issued essentiality certificate and Sambalpur University given consent for affiliation. MCI permission has already been sought and the team is expected to be here soon. Pending works have been taken up on a war-footing to meet the MCI stipulations, he added.

The chairman of the Salvam Educational and Charitable Trust SA Raja, in a press release, said that the commitment for establishment of a medical college and super speciality hospital will be fulfilled and he thanked people for their cooperation for success of the project despite undue delay.

It would be interesting to see whether this one becomes operational first or the AIIMS-like institute in Bhubaneswar gets operational first. Looks like both are scheduled to take in students in 2012. The foundation stone of the AIIMS-like institution was laid in 2003, a year earlier than the medical college in Kalahandi.

2 comments March 4th, 2011

Nine Medical Trusts interested in medical colleges in Odisha: three approved

5 comments July 4th, 2010

Odisha Chief Secretary proposes government medical colleges at Balasore and Bolangir

Following is an excerpt from a report in tathya.in.

Chief Secretary Mr.Mishra along with Balangir has also suggested setting up another Government Medical College at Balasore.

He said at present there are 3 Government Medical Colleges at Cuttack, Berhampur and Burla in Sambalpur.

There are 3 private Medical Colleges at Bhubaneswar and Hi-Tech Medical College has been allowed to set up a Medical College at Rourkela.

Central University of Odisha has been requested to set up a Medical College at Koraput.

Sahayog Foundation has shown keen interest to set up a Medical College at Keonjhar.

Ministry of Steel has been approached for a Medical College funded by SAIL at Rourkela by upgrading Ispat General Hospital (IGH).

Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL) is setting up a Medical College at Talcher.

So a Government Medical College at Balangir seems the only option available.

With another Medical College at Balasore, there will be harmonious spread of Medical Colleges all over Odisha, felt the top most administrator of the state.

The proposal is pending with the Chief Minister and he will take the final call on the issue, said sources.

What about Kalahandi? The WODC medical college there is stuck for some time. The Odisha government should consider taking over what has already been constructed and make it a government medical college too.

If a medical college in Kalahandi is also made and all the above mentioned medical colleges come through then the following 11 undivided districts (out of 13) will have at least one medical college: Cuttack, Ganjam, Sambalpur, Puri, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Koraput, Balangir, Kalahandi, Sundergarh and Balasore. The only two that will be left out are: Baudha-Kandhamal and Mayurbhanj. They can be addressed in the next round.

June 21st, 2010

Status of Sardar Raja’s Medical College and Hospital in Jaring, Kalahandi: Pioneer

Following are excerpts from a report in Pioneer.

Kalahandi’s Sardar Raja’s Medical College and Hospital (SRMCH), the foundation-stone for which was laid by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on February 8, 2004 at Jaring, named Naveen Town, is yet to cater to the needs of the region full-fledged.

Even after six years, the pending work of the hostel construction is yet to be completed.

Initially, the State Government had provided 25 acres of land at Jaring, en route Bhawanipatna to Junagarh, and the Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) had sanctioned Rs 10 crore (out of which Rs 9 crore has been received) for the establishment of the SRMCH.

The ongoing work began to slowdown when its chairman was convicted in a case by the Madras High Court ten months ago.

… However, Raja’s two sons often visit the Jaring-based SRMCH from Tamil Nadu and hope for its bright future.

CEO Tarun Mishra told The Pioneer that in the absence of the chairman, all its staffers are apparently losing confidence.

Mishra also informed that the trust has enough funds and all its 83 staff members get their salaries in time, but the pace of the work is yet to pick up.

He said that earlier the WODC CEO Aswini Mishra, Kalinga Hospital director Saheb Sahu, Junagarh MLA Gobardhan Das and Berhampur Medical College principal Sunamali Bag had held a review meeting on the hospital campus for speeding up the work.

The SRMCH had signed an MOU with the State Government to complete it in a five-year period, but the period of the MoU has already elapsed.

… Under the Selvan Educational and Charitable Trust, Vadakangulam in Tamil Nadu, the SRMCH has already spent around Rs 25-30 crore and the WODC has funded Rs 9 crore for the building construction and purchase of equipment.

The hospital’s 100-bed facility was first inaugurated on December 9, 2006.

It was again inaugurated on March 18, 2007 with its 200-bed facility followed by its last inauguration of 300-bed on July 27, 2007.

Facilitated with all types of equipment, the hospital work is now being handled by three doctors only, with a medicine specialist, pediatrician and one dentist on duty.

Nearby villagers come to the hospital and take advantage of it as far as possible. It requires appointment of 12 doctors for full-fledged operation.

… The hospital has facilities of an ICU, two X-ray wards, ECG, ultra sound, 3 OTs, but due to insufficient doctors machines are hardly used.

The positive part is that the hospital is somewhat functional and has 300 beds and the trust has spend much more than what it received from WODC. But considering that even the private medical colleges in Bhubaneswar are running at a loss, a private medical college in Kalahandi does not have a good chance of being self-sustaining. The government needs to step in and either take over the infrastructure, add the necessary missing infrastructure and make it a government medical college OR agree to pay the full tuition (at market rates) of at least 20 students/batch for the next five years. The latter will guarantee some cash flow to the trust and perhaps make it easier for them to operate the medical college.

June 15th, 2010

Education issues debated in Odisha Assembly: Naming of National/innovation University; Government taking over of the medical college in Kalahandi

Tathya.in reports that this time nice debates are going on in the Odisha assembly.Following are some Samaja reports on debates relevant to education.

March 14th, 2010

Hi-Tech advertises for its Rourkela Medical College: Dharitri, Samaja

The ad says they are expecting it to start in 2010-11. Perhaps someone from Rourkela can tell us how far the construction has progressed. Any photos would be appreciated.

8 comments March 3rd, 2010

Making Rourkela a Tier II city of India – HRD and other development of Rourkela (work in progress)

Rourkela is the second largest metropolitan area of Orissa with an official metropolitan population of 550,668 but perhaps much more (at least 700 K) if one takes into account nearby places like Biramitrapur and Rajgangpur. It is probably the most cosmopolitan area of Orissa. Because of its steel plant it has world-wide name recognition. It has a lot of young talents; I am told that Rourkela youngsters have done much better in entrance exams like IIT JEE than from other parts of Orissa. Rourkela and the Sundergarh district have produced many national hockey players (both male and female), some of whom have gone on to captain the Indian national side.

Being an important station in the Mumbai-Howrah line, Rourkela is very well connected to both. The National Institute of Technology at Rourkela is often ranked among the top 5 NITs of the country; in recent years it has done much better and is in the process of starting a business program. Rourkela also has two private engineering colleges and at least one more is in the works. Rourkela has at least two good magament schools: Rourkela Institute of Management Studies (sometimes ranked nationally) and Indian Institute of Production Management, Kansbahal.

Overall, Rourkela has the potential to be a Tier II city of India at the level of Vizag, Chandigarh, etc. But unfortunately, that has not happened so far and active organized efforts need to be made to achieve that.

So here I will list some of the things that should be pursued so that Rourkela becomes a Tier II city of India.

Knowledge and HRD aspects:

Metropolitan University: Rourkela is perhaps the largest metropolitan area of the country, or may be the whole world which does not have a general university. This needs to be rectified at the earliest. IMHO, the best model to follow would be of Delhi University. So a Rourkela Metropolitan University should be established with graduate programs as well as with a few constituent colleges spread (offering Bachelors as well as Masters degrees) across the metropolitan area, but with no affiliated colleges. The exisiting government colleges in Rourkela (Govt. College, Rourkela; SG Women’s, Rourkela and Rourkela College) would be made constituents of this university.
Medical College: Although a WODC sponsored PPP-based medical college is in the works, we must continue pursuing an ESIC medical college here. SAIL, which is making a medical college in Bokaro, should also be pushed to establish a medical college here.
BPUT: BPUT must become fully operational from Rourkela.It needs to have real departments and centers and offer its own courses. It should be expanded to have programs in Science and Humanities.
Research Centers: The state should pursue one of the central government departments such as CSIR, DAE, Sc & Tech, etc. to open a research center in Rourkela.
Centrally funded University: At some point a centrally funded university should be pursued for Rourkela.
More private institutions: Rourkela has the population base and the amenities that metropolitan areas offer to have more private institutions such as engineering colleges, management institutions etc. A multi-pronged apporoach should be taken.
- Local big industries should be cajoled to participate in this. For example, SAIL is also planning an engineering college in Bokaro. They should be pushed to have one in Rourkela.
- Local people should also open private institutions on their own.
- Educational foundations inside and outside state that have developed good private institutions should be approached and invited to open institutions in Rourkela. Inside Orissa, institutions like Silicon and NIST should be approached.
STP: The STP at Rourkela should be expanded.
IT/BPO: Because of the cosmopolitan nature of Rourkela, it would be a good place for BPO and call center operations. This should be pursued.
Sports Institute/University: Sundergrah district is considered by many to be the Hockey cradle of India, both in men’s and women’s hockey. It has produced both Men’s and Women’s hockey team captains in Dilip Tirkey and Jyoti Sunita Kullu. Orissa government should pursue to establish a National Sports Institute (of the kind in Patiala) in Rourkela. It should include programs in physical training, coach training, official training etc. This would specially contribute in the enhancing the employment opportunities for Adivasis who constitute 50.74% of Sundergarh’s population.

Connectivity Aspects:

Rail Connectivity -Trains: While the connectivity to Mumbai and Kolkata is marvelous, connectivity to other places needs improvement. Dilip has a good list of new trains needed for Rourkela at http://rourkelarail.wetpaint.com/page/DEMANDS. This list is:
- Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Intercity Express( Day Time)
- Rourkela-Berhampur Gajapati Express
- Rourkela-Secundarabad/Hyderabad Express
- Trains to New Delhi from Bhubaneswar via Rourkela OR Rourkela-Nizamuddin/New Delhi Express (Any extension of Ranchi-Hatia or Tatanagar trains will also work)
- Trains to Patna and Eastern U.P.
Rail Connectivity-Others: The Talcher-Bimlagarh line must be fast-tracked.
Roads: The 4-laning of the state highway 10 connecting Sambalpur and Rourkela must be expedited.
Air Connectivity: Rourkela airport must be made functional with commercial flights at the earliest.

Metro area:

A larger metropolitan area for Rourkela that includes Kansbahal and Rajgangpur in the west and Biramitrapur in the North must be formally established.
The state government should pursue Rourkela to be included in JNNURM.

(The above is from Google Maps.)

(The above is from "sarini: Occasional papers, No. 4, Adivasis of Rourkela")

Work in Progress…

43 comments November 15th, 2009

RVS Group to set up medical college in Balangir; MOU to be signed soon

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has given green signal for the RVS Educational Trust to set up the proposed medical college and hospital in Balangir. Approving the recommendations of a high-level committee, he has asked the Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) to go ahead with an MoU for the purpose.

… Coimbatore-based RVS Group of Institutions, led by Dr KV Kuppusamy, is managing 87 educational institutions in the country. … The WODC had invited expression of interest for the medical college and hospital in Balangir last year in view of Shree Balaji Education and Charitable Trust backing out of the project.

The RVS Group would invest at least Rs 100 crore, while the WODC would provide a Rs 10-crore grant and 25 acres of land in Balangir. The medical college would have an intake capacity of 100 with a 300-bed hospital at its initial stage. Subsequently it would be enhanced to a 500-bed hospital and gradually to a 1,000-bed super speciality hospital, said sources in the WODC.

4 comments November 8th, 2009

NIT Rourkela must follow NIT Warangal and go for a medical school and law school

Following is an excerpt from an IANS story by Prashant Nanda that we found in a report in thaiinidan.com.

… “We will retain our original name (NIT-Warangal) but it will become an integrated university with both medical and legal education among other programmes beyond engineering and technology.

“We will also provide postgraduate courses in humanities, business economics, biotechnology and many others. The focus will gradually shift to from under-graduation to post-graduation and research,” Rao explained.

NIT Warangal is the first among the NITs. It was dedicated to the nation by the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru way back in 1959. Then it was known a regional engineering college. The institute is older than many IITs, including IIT-Delhi.

… The director said the institute, which started its journey with a little over 100 students from a temporary campus, now boasts of 4,200 students. In 2006, the institute had 2,000 students of which 1,600 were pursuing B.Tech courses and the rest M.Tech.

“While all the central government institutes are implementing the OBC (Other Backward Classes) quota in three years, we did it at one go. With an increase in the number of seats, we have shifted our focus to post-graduation and research. Out of 4,200 students, currently 1,400 are M.Tech students and 300 are PhD scholars,” Rao added.

Like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, NIT-Warangal will become an integrated university and provide all kinds of courses to students to help the country move forward in the field of higher education, he said.

“The process of becoming a university will start from the coming academic session but it may take a few years to become a full-fledged one. We are targeting 5,000 students by 2011 and 15,000 by 2015,” Rao said, elaborating on his mega plan.

“We are planning to have the school of medical science next year. We are going to give emphasis on biotechnology and microbiology and here the school of medical science will help us grow in both research and innovation.”

NIT Roukela has recently started a program in Biotechnology and is about to start MBA. But it must go beyond and pursue a medical school.

3 comments September 29th, 2009

PPP based Medical colleges planned in Balasore, Rayagada and Naraj

Following is an excerpt based on a report in Pioneer.

Accordingly, three medical colleges at Cuttack, Balasore and Rayagada, in the PPP mode, are on the anvil. Acharya is also interested in providing similar facility at Jharsuguda. Private partners will set up the medical colleges and hospitals as per the Medical Council of India guidelines.

The State Government will provide 25 acres of land, and agreements will be signed with the private promoters accordingly. As per the guidelines, a medical college in the KBK districts will attract one-time Government grant.

The Government is eyeing private partners having hospitals of national and State presence, charitable, religious groups managing hospitals and groups of doctors, interested to set up and manage hospitals. Lands for the hospitals have been identified by the PPP Cell with the help of the district administration.

Lets see how these go. Considering that the earlier proposed WODC supported PPP medical colleges in Bhawanipatna, Balangir and Rourkela have not yet commenced classes I will keep my fingers crossed.

September 1st, 2009

Selected HRD headlines from our Twitter site

Following is from our twitter site http://twitter.com/orissalinks.

Besides Frankfinn Bhubaneswar also has an Air hostess Academy. http://airhostessacademy.co…
New web site of Human Development Foundation at http://www.hdf.ac.in is now active.
So far 18+1 (director) new faculty have joined NISER Bhubaneswar. http://niser.ac.in/faculty.php 13 more have been offered.
NISER Bhubaneswar permanent faculty: Phy (7), Bio (4), Math (3), Chemistry (4+1 Director)
TOI http://bit.ly/18efsq Utkal university Bhubaneswar signs MoU with Central council for research in ayurveda and Siddha (CCRAS)
kalahandia> e-admission kicked off in Orissa for junior colleges: e-admission kicked off Tathya.in.. http://bit.ly/42CD3
IIT Bhubaneswar Director could have been more imaginative in the IIT Diro’s meeting. http://bit.ly/1avLnx IIT Hyderabad D most impressive.
Sand artist Sudarsan teams up with Vedanta University in Puri (near Bhubaneswar) http://bit.ly/4i2ql
Sibal asked the IITs to expand into new areas like medicine and law and evolve a framework in this regard. http://bit.ly/qjTRI
orissalinksSibal: “For eg, IIT-Kharagpur can have its campus in Delhi too. Spread your wings like an octopus, I will support you.” http://bit.ly/164HC5
orissalinksSibal: "Why can’t you have a law school inside your campus. Why can’t an engineering student learn about management, economics and biology?”
orissalinksIIT Bhubaneswar is just starting so it can not spread wings or have medical schools that soon. But NIT Rourkela can. We should push.
orissalinkskalahandia> Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandirs perform exceptionally well in Orissa: Sangh schools sco.. http://bit.ly/HvlYs
orissalinkskalahandia> Dr. Sanjib Kumar Karmee’s Letter to CM of Orissa on Medical College in Balangir: Dear .. http://bit.ly/PXtcL
orissalinkskalahandia> Bhubaneswar to have railway medical college: Mamata Banerjee announces slew of staff-f.. http://bit.ly/HtNZA
orissalinks.com> Orissa state cabinet approves bills for Vedanta, Sri Sri and ICFAI Universities: Following is an e.. http://bit.ly/hmqXI
orissalinkskalahandia> Why not an IIM at Burla-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda (BSJ) region?: Orissa likely to miss IIM .. http://bit.ly/UqN2h
orissalinkskalahandia> Biju Patnaik Rural varsity to come up in Bhubaneswar: Biju Patnaik Rural varsity to co.. http://bit.ly/cBl6t
orissalinkskalahandia> New in Ministry of Agriculture Orissa: Horticulture college at Chiplima, agriculture c.. http://bit.ly/FjvJz
orissalinksVC of Central Univ of Orissa at Koraput urges center for a medical college http://bit.ly/zbfnq
orissalinksTOI: Delhi to set up knowledge city; land earmarked. http://bit.ly/zLQyf Orissa is gifted one but many stupidly oppose.
orissalinksXIM Bhubaneswar names its new acad. block as Tata Centenary Learning Centre; Tata Steel contributed about 1 crore to it. http://bit.ly/bwvES

Please consider joining Twitter and following Orissalinks to get similar updates immediately. That site will have original micro-postings (140 characters) as well as the headlines of the Orissalinks, Orissagrowth and Kalahandia blogs.

July 12th, 2009

Status of WODC helped private medical colleges in Kalahandi, Balangir and Rourkela

Following is from Samaja:

The summary of the status is:

Bhawanipatna, Kalahandi: Good progress, MCI visitor scheduled to visit in September for inspection
Balangir: Govt. has received 6 proposals after its last call. The proposals are from:
- Dr.D Meher Education & Health Trust, Balangir,
- Santhigiri Ashram, Kerala,
- Sahayata Trust, Hydrabad,
- supreme Task, New Delhi,
- Vigyan Bharati Charitable Trust , Bhubaneswar and
- RVS Educational Trust, Tamil Nadu.
Rourkela: MOU signed with Bhubaneswar based Vigyan Bharati Charitable trust. (They also run the Hi-Tech Medical college in Bhubaneswar.) Construction has started.

2 comments July 1st, 2009

Call for EOI for establishing a medical college in Balangir

Following is from http://www.wodcorissa.org/notice.pdf. As per http://www.wodcorissa.org/Corrigendum.pdf the deadline has been extended till November 30, 2008.

November 18th, 2008

Hi-Tech group’s plan for Khurda, Jatni and Rourkela

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard by Jayjit Dash.

Hi-Tech Group of Institutions has planned to set up two management institutes, one at Khurda and the other at Jatni, both located within 25 km radius of the city, at a combined investment of about Rs 12 crore.

These management institutes are set to be built on surplus land available at the two technological institutes run by the organisation – Konark Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) located at Jatni and the Hi-Tech Institute of Technology (HIT) in Khurda.

While the B-school in Khurda will come up on 15 acres of surplus land on HIT campus, the other B-school will be developed on 10 acres of surplus land within the KIST campus at Jatni.

“Construction work for our two proposed management institutes has already begun and we expect these two institutes to be functional next year. …

Each of these management institutes will have an intake of 60 seats and will offer two-year, full-time MBA programmes from the 2009-10 academic session.

The Hi-Tech Group will also invest Rs 30 crore for introducing new super-specialities, namely, cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, neurology, nephrology and trauma care in the Hi-Tech hospital. Hi-Tech Group of Institutions has also got the approval of AICTE to introduce post-graduate courses in engineering at the KIST campus.

The KIST campus will offer MTech in computer science and engineering as well as electronics and telecommunications engineering from the next academic session.

At present, KIST is offering BTech in five streams of engineering with the institute’s total intake being 420 seats. Meanwhile, the group expects to take possession of land for its proposed medical college and hospital in Rourkela within a month.

“We expect to get 25 acres of land for our proposed medical college cum hospital in Rourkela within a month and then inaugurate the hospital six months after acquiring land. Our medical college in Rourkela is expected to be operational a year after the inauguration of the hospital”, Panigrahi claimed.

1 comment September 13th, 2008

People of Kalahandi up in arms for university: Dharitri

2 comments August 12th, 2008