Bhubaneswar, May 11: A team of the Medical Council of India will visit Baripada to examine the feasibility of starting MBBS course in the Pandit Raghunath Murmu College from the coming academic session.

The decision came after life in Mayurbhanj district was paralysed today following a dawn-to-dusk strike observed by the district bar association.

The state's health secretary and other officials today attended a meeting called by Union health minister J.P. Nadda in New Delhi to discuss about the admission issue. Soon after the meeting, it was announced that the council would visit Baripada, assess the infrastructure and submit its report well before the academic session began. Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan also attended the meeting.

People of the district staged an agitation after the Union government had accorded permission to start admission for the medical college in Koraput. Incidentally, the BJD was wiped out in the recently held zila parishad elections in the district.

At the Delhi meeting, it was revealed today that the state government had not submitted the required papers to the authorities, resulting in the council not making subsequent visit to Baripada. The state was to submit the compliance report after the council had visited Baripada in last December.

The state government had earlier announced that admission to Baripada medical college would start from this academic session.

On Monday, health secretary P.K. Meherda wrote to the Supreme Court-appointed Mandate Committee, seeking permission for commencement of admission to 100 MBBS seats from 2017-18 academic session.

Today, the Congress, the CPI and the CPM supported the strike, while both the BJD and the BJP opposed it.

District bar association president Prabir Kumar Basa said: "The bandh was spontaneous and successful."

Shops, banks, schools, colleges and government offices remained closed in support of the shutdown. The strike supporters blocked two national highways (49 and 18), bringing vehicular traffic to a halt.

The strike's impact was felt at Bamanaghati, Panchapirh and Kaptipada sub-divisions across the district, apart from the district headquarters town.

A senior police officer of the district said the strike was more or less peaceful. "No untoward incident was reported during the bandh," he said.