The Samikhsya Bureau
BHUBANESWAR: Kendrapara district chapter of Congress would resort to agitation against the apathy of the state government towards improvement of the district’s healthcare facilities.
Senior Congress leader and former minister Ganeswar Behera has announced this on Wednesday.
He has demanded a medical college and hospital at Kendrapara.
His demand follows Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s nod to establishment of a similar hospital and college for neighbouring Jajpur district.
It is shocking that the government has forgotten Kendrapara which is home to 14.22 lakh people including 3.09 lakh SC and 9481 ST people who deserve quality healthcare from the government, Behera rued.
Sixty-eight per cent of people of the district depend upon farming and are not economically sound, he added.
Of the sanctioned strength of 225 doctors for the government run hospitals, the district has just 78, he stated.
Even the District Headquarter hospital is functioning with only 50 per cent of the doctors, he added.
The Congress leader reminded that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for a 100 bedded mother and child care hospital in 2016 and had set a deadline for its functioning within two years.
Four years have lapsed so far without functioning of the hospital, he lamented.
Unless the Chief Minister ensures that Kendrapara gets its long pending due of a medical college and hospital, Congress would be compelled to agitation and would gherao the Collectorate next month, the leader announced.
