BHUBANESWAR: Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan today said that the Odisha government should try to ensure quality education at Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College, Baripada instead of blaming the Centre for delay in approval to start MBBS admission from this academic session.
"The state Government should create infrastructure and other required facilities for medical education at Baripada college for churning out qualified doctors and not Munna Bhai MBBS," the minister told mediapersons.
Pradhan said the state government should also take steps to ensure posting of faculty to ensure proper education and create condition for smooth functioning of the medical college.
The BJP leader said if Odisha Government extracts pleasure and happiness by playing politics on the issue and criticising him, it is welcome, but it must meet all criteria and keep documents ready as medical colleges cannot open through 'short cuts'.
Pradhan's remarks came a day after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made an on-the-spot visit to Baripada medical college hospital yesterday and expressed satisfaction over the construction work there.
Hitting back at Pradhan, minister for health and family welfare Pratap Jena alleged that the Union Minister is "jealous" after the state government through sincere effort obtained the approval to start admission for MBBS course from this academic session from the Supreme Court mandated oversight committee.
The process of admission of students for 100 MBBS undergraduate seats for the 2017-18 academic session can now be taken up as the Supreme Court mandated committed has given its nod, Jena said.
The oversight committee's green signal came a week after the state government sought its intervention following failure to get Letter of Permission (LoP) from the Medical Council of India (MCI) to start the Medical College and Hospital in 2017-18 academic session.