Row over medical college in Ratabari, Silchar

A CORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR: The State government's decision to set up a medical college in Ratabari has triggered a fresh bout of verbal clash among the leaders of ruling and opposition parties. Congress MLA Kamalakha Dey Purkayastha alleged that the decision to set up the medical college in a place like Ratabari had violated the guidelines of National Medical Council. Claiming that the Council guidelines clearly underlined that government medical college should be set up within ten-kilometre radius of the district headquarters, Purkayastha said, Ratabari is far away from Karimganj and the place had no basic infrastructure like regular transportation and banking service. Dr Rajdeep Roy, the ruling party MP from Silchar, however, argued that for a state medical college, this NMC guideline is not applicable. Opposition leaders were misguiding people with their half-baked knowledge, he alleged. Purkayastha on the other hand said, the Principal Secretary of the State government himself had in a communique said that the proposed medical college should be set up within 10-kilometre radius of the district headquarters. "Dr Rajdeep Roy is an eminent doctor, now it is his turn to clear whether the top bureaucrat of his government is also a man with half-baked knowledge," Purkayastha countered.

On Tuesday, the State Cabinet in its meeting in Silchar sanctioned Rs 650 crore for the proposed medical college in Karimganj district. Later, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in his press briefing said, the college would be set up in Ratabari. Architectural design would be prepared shortly and then the construction work would be started. But a major group of citizens of Karimganj town had been vehemently opposing the decision to set up the medical college in a remote place like Ratabari. They had even threatened to launch agitation against the move.

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