Mangaluru: The first govt medical college in Dakshina Kannada district will not come up in the district headquarters, but in a taluk headquarters at Puttur. The announcement by chief minister Siddaramaiah in his 16th state budget on Friday that he proposed to establish a new medical college at Puttur has met with a lot of acclaim from all quarters.
Siddaramaiah announced that to establish the medical college, action will be initiated to upgrade the present 100-bedded taluk hospital during this year. This was possible due to aggressive efforts put in by the local MLA Ashok Rai, the unequivocal support of the public cutting across party lines, and continuous pressure on the govt from the past 18 months.
Though former minister UT Khader pursued the govt for a medical college attached to Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru during his term as a minister, the minute his govt lost power, it went on the backburner.
An elated Ashok Rai told TOI, "It's a red-letter day in the history of Puttur. A taluk headquarters getting a govt medical college is unheard of. I have been pursuing this agenda rigorously since I became an MLA. I attended all pre-budget meetings to pursue this agenda. Now we have a lot of work to be done to upgrade the taluk hospital to 350-bed. I'm sure that within the next three years, the medical college will be up and running."
He surmised that all facilities, barring hostels, should be ready within that period. The medical college will come up at Sediyapu, Bannur, where a 40-acre land parcel is available. "There's no problem as far as land is concerned," he asserted.
The demand for the college started way back in 2021 when then Puttur MLA Sanjeeva Matandoor submitted a proposal to the govt and was awaiting nod to upgrade the existing maternity hospital to a 150-bed govt hospital in Puttur, a prerequisite for setting up a medical college. But the process gathered steam in the last 18 months, with the public starting a signature campaign in Jan 2023 by forming an action committee and launching an apolitical movement.
In between, an alleged move to divert the Sediyapu land for a central govt seafood park project elicited angry responses from the public as well as people's representatives, forcing the authorities to shelve the project. Then district minister Kota Srinivas Poojary said the proposal to divert the land reserved for the medical college has been held back due to objections and pressure from local people's representatives.