Vedanta To Support Setting Up Govt Medical College In Kalahandi

Bhubaneswar: Odisha government on Tuesday announced to set up a government medical college in poverty-stricken Kalahandi district.

Vedanta Group, which has a one million ton smelter plant in the district, would provide infrastructure support to set up the plant.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced setting up the medical college in Kalahandi after meeting Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal at the state secretariat here.

Vedanta would provide Rs 100 crore to set up Kalahandi medical college and hospital.

The decision of the state government came in days after it invited flak from various quarters over the incident of a tribal man had to walk 10 km with his wife’s body on his shoulders as he was denied a hearse or ambulance.

Agarwal also discussed the raw material issue with the Chief Minister.

Notably, the smelter and refinery plant of Vedanta are running under capacity due to the shortage of bauxite to feed the plants.

Agarwal said the state government has assured to provide raw material through Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) to run the smelter plant at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi.

He pointed out that the government has assured to solve the raw material problem by March 2017.