Members of the public extended their support to the call for the day-long bandh jointly given by the Mayiladuthurai Chamber of Traders, and Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peramaippu and other trade bodies as well as public welfare organisations.
While the Nagapattinam district administration has already identified a 60-acre site at Orathur village, about 9 km away from the district headquarters, for the newly-sanctioned government medical college, the public in Mayiladuthurai who have been demanding district status for a long time, on Tuesday joined in the bandh questioning the rationale behind ignoring the town for the major project.
“The site identified for the ₹325 crore project is located at a distance of just 20 km from Tiruvarur district and 24 km from Karaikal district. Mayiladuthurai, though a developed town faces a severe shortcoming in health infrastructure. This being the case, the choice of the site identified for the project makes no sense," Kalaichelvan, a trader in Mayiladuthurai, said.
The facilities at the Government Hospital, Mayiladuthurai, are not in consonance with requirements of a tertiary care centre, medical fraternity in the town say. More often, complicated cases are referred from there to the Government Medical College Hospital in Tiruvarur district, which is relatively nearer than the Government Hospital in Nagapattinam located nearly 60 km away.
The Nagapattinam district administration had narrowed down on the site at Orathur as a large land parcel was not available elsewhere. The site had to be identified close to Nagapattinam town since the new college has to be attached to the existing district/referral hospital under the Centrally sponsored scheme, official sources said.
Nagapattinam Government Hospital has a capacity to accommodate more than 500 in-patients, Joint Director of Health Services Mahendran said.
Nagapattinam is among the three districts, along with Krishnagiri and Tiruvallur, where new medical colleges will be coming up under the Central scheme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. According to sources in PWD Construction wing, it will take more than two years for readying the building at Orathur.
In all likelihood, the new college will initially begin functioning from rented buildings, the sources said.
