BHUBANESWAR: The VSS Medical College at Burla may soon be accorded status of a unitary university. The State Government has already laid out elaborate plans for it.
The move for unitary university status stems from the fact that the State has been planning to accord academic, administrative and financial autonomy to the MCH which has long been languishing without development and improved facilities.
Initially, the Government wanted it to be an autonomous institute on lines of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Chandigarh, but it was on the backfoot since Law Department advised that it will require Centre’s nod in the form of a legislation.
It was then that the State zeroed in on the possibility of making it a unitary university so that it can manage its own affairs. Although it will require the approval of the State Legislature in the shape of a law, the move will be easier.
A draft bill has already been prepared by the State Government and on Monday, it was discussed thoroughly by experts from different fields. The unanimous view was to expedite the autonomous status to VSSMCH.
Established in 1959, VSS-MCH caters to 18 districts - 12 in western Orissa and six from neighbouring Chhattisgarh. However, the institution has not been in the best of its health and people flock to the coastal Orissa region to avail improved and better health care services.
This had led to a brewing of resentment in the western Orissa and the State Government was prompted to accord autonomy to the medical college so that it is equipped to take its own decisions, recruit its faculties and staff and generate its own resources.
Though the State wanted autonomous status for SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, and MKCG Medical College, Berhampur, it is keen to give VSS Medical its due first given the sensitivity of the matter.
According to Health Minister Prasanna Acharya, the Government will be including the vital features of AIIMS, PGIMS while giving unitary university status to VSS Medical College and Hospital.