The announcements of chief minister Suvendu Adhikari regarding improvement of government health infrastructure through establishment of tertiary healthcare facilities, which will also impart medical education, have left the residents of north Bengal elated.

On Saturday, Suvendu, who held a meeting in virtual mode with Union health minister J.P. Nadda made some important announcements.

“The state government will send proposals to the Centre for setting up medical colleges in the districts of Alipurduar, Kalimpong, South Dinajpur and in Asansol (of West Burdwan), along with details of land. Also, another proposal would be sent for setting up an AIIMS in north Bengal,” the chief minister said at a news conference
in Nabanna.

In this region, the oldest and largest state-run referral hospital and medical college is the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital located in Susrutanagar on the outskirts of Siliguri, in Darjeeling district.

Since 2011, when Mamata Banerjee assumed the chief minister’s office, her government upgraded the district hospitals to government medical colleges in Cooch Behar, Malda, Raiganj, and Jalpaiguri.

“Questions were, however, raised time and again over the infrastructure of most of these four new medical colleges, right from the number of doctors to the faculty members and available facilities required for patients as well as for students pursuing medical education,” said a senior doctor based in Siliguri.

“It is good that the new government has planned medical colleges in the remaining three districts of north Bengal. But it will have to ensure that there is adequate infrastructure, along with doctors and faculty members, in these institutions,”
he added.

Ahead of the Assembly elections, the saffron party had also promised some central government institutions for north Bengal, a region that has backed the BJP in the recent elections.

Among these is an AIIMS, particularly because earlier, a project to open an AIIMS in Raiganj was shelved and eventually, it was opened in Kalyani at the insistence of the TMC government.

“This had led to disgruntlement among people across north Bengal. Now that the BJP has come to power in the state, it is keen on setting up an AIIMS here to politically further corner Trinamool,” said a political
observer.

Following Suvendu’s announcements, many BJP leaders, including MPs like Raju Bista and Sukanta Majumdar, were quick to make posts on social media.

“Since 2019, I have been pushing for the establishment of a medical college in our hills. However, the discriminatory Trinamool Congress government under Mamata Banerjee repeatedly blocked this vital project, denying our people the basic right to quality healthcare and development. Today, under the dynamic and pro-people BJP government led by CM Suvendu Adhikari ji, justice is finally being done for our region and people,” Bista wrote in his post.