MCL to set up medical college in Talcher.

Coming under a sustained pressure from the State Government, the Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd (MCL) has reportedly agreed to set up a Medical College at Talcher. A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level joint meeting between the Coal India Limited (CIL) Chairman Partha S Bhattacharjee and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat on Thursday.During the meeting, Patnaik placed a proposal before the Coal India Chairman to convert the existing 100 bedded hospital at Talcher to a 400-bedded hospital and to make it a full-fledged Medical College. Bhattacharjee promptly agreed to Patnaik's proposal, sources said. He also agreed to deploy more mobile dispensary units in the mining areas.
Later speaking to reporters, Bhattacharjee said Coal India would soon bring a new Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R $R) policy of its own. "It would be different from the Centre and the State. More stress would be given on community engagement and large-scale development of the common man," he said, adding that it would put thrust on increasing the employment ability of the people. People would be the stakeholder of the development process.
He further said that all companies coming under Coal India put thrust on the rehabilitation programme. "Out of the 21,000 employees, around 40 per cent are from displaced families," he said.Giving a broad outline of Coal India's plan, he further said that the coal crisis in the country would be resolved within three months. "There would be no shortage of coal in the country. We will push the coal to every nook and corner of the country," he said, adding that MCL has made a target of producing 100 million tonne of coal in 2008-09.
It was also decided in the meeting that steps would be taken to launch a massive afforest ration programme in the Talcher area. Both the Agriculture Production Commissioner and MCL Managing Director will work jointly and monitor the afforest ration programme.Mahanadi Coalfields Limited CMD SR Upadhayay, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Bijay Kumar Patnaik and Secretary, Energy, Suresh Chandra Mohapatra were present at the meeting.