It was long felt desideratum for the lakhs of people of Bolangir and the adjoining districts to have such an institution there. Regardless of the timing of the inauguration, like many other projects of late, may have a political undertone with the polls barely months away, but the heady mix of anxieties manifested in the speeches postulate an overview.
That was an official function and the Union Health Minister J.P.Nadda’s entry in a motor bike rally was not congruous with the occasion. Secondly speaking from the stage the union minister while heaping praises on the NDA for the setting up of the medical college did appear distancing from the location . Nadda appealed to the people in general and by implication urged the chief minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik not to sidestep the importance of the Central health scheme Ayushman Bharat while simultaneously implementing the state sponsored scheme Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojna. One does not know if that jibe from the union minister was warranted or not.
The occasion was for the inauguration of the Medical College for which both the Centre and the State have shared the cost at 60-40 respectively but so far, as reports suggest the Centre is yet to provide the matching funds . So the state has spent almost double the money the Centre has allocated.
On the other the Odisha Chief minister was very clinical in his statement before the media. He hardly departed from the line of the people’s welfare angle and went in detail to say about the benefits the larger mass would enjoy. Even if he appeared at some points indulging in self-back-patting but that can not be viewed as grossly inappropriate given the efforts and money contributed by the State.
However, the alleged lapse regarding the non-mention of the union health minister’s name in an invitation card, if true, was uncalled for.
