SAMBALPUR: Hundreds of students and doctors of VIMSAR, Burla on Thursday sent postcards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the establishment of a second AIIMS in Sundargarh district in Odisha.
The Odisha government had proposed to the Centre for an AIIMS in tribal-dominated Sundargarh district in November last year. In a letter to the Centre, then Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy had requested to consider Odisha’s demand for the second AIIMS at Sankara in Sundargarh where the NTPC has already developed infrastructure for a medical college and hospital besides residential facilities for both teaching and non-teaching staff at a cost of around Rs 418 crore.
Though a Central team visited the site in April this year to review the infrastructure, there has been no visible progress on the proposal so far. President of resident doctors’ association of VIMSAR Sanjeeb Mishra said, “The Centre can make provision for the establishment of a second AIIMS in the State like it has done in Bihar. Since we already have adequate infrastructure developed by the NTPC at Sundargarh, our demand is to consider the location for second AIIMS so that lakhs of people in Western Odisha region can avail quality tertiary care.”
Similarly, president of VIMSAR’s UG students’ union Pinaki Prashad Bhola said the second AIIMS in Sundargarh will be a boon for people of Western Odisha as the current healthcare infrastructure is unable to cater to the populace of the region. Apart from providing a major boost to the healthcare scenario, it will help students of Western Odisha to pursue their post-graduation. Students of VIMSAR will also be benefitted as they will get help in carrying out research works, he said. On Wednesday, the District Bar Association had also written to the Prime Minister over the demand. The citizen forum of Sambalpur had also made a similar demand last month.