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Bengal

Bengal to soon get six more medical colleges and hospitals

Bengal to soon get six more medical colleges and hospitals
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KOLKATA: In a major boost to higher education in the medical stream, the state will soon have six more government-run medical colleges and hospitals.

The Mamata Banerjee government is naming the upcoming medical college and hospital at Arambagh after former Chief Minister of Bengal, Prafulla Chandra Sen.The one coming up at Uluberia in Howrah has been named after Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, whose ancestral house was at Debanandapur in Howrah.

In a significant move, the medical college and hospital at Tamluk has been named as Tamralipta Government Medical College and Hospital. This comes when the state government is setting up six new medical colleges in Uluberia, Jhargram, Barasat, Arambagh, Tamluk and Jalpaiguri. It has already taken up steps to initiate the recruitment process in 1,464 posts. According to the experts, it is a unique move as there are very few higher education institutes that are named after former Chief Ministers of Bengal.

The agriculture university in Nadia – Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya - is named after Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy. Sen, who was known as Gandhi of Arambagh, was the state's third Chief Minister of Congress government from July 9, 1962 to February 28, 1967.

Sen, who was a freedom fighter, became the Chief Minister after winning as an MLA from the then Arambagh East Assembly constituency in Hooghly. The then Chief Minister Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy had inducted him into the Cabinet in 1948 as Agriculture minister.

He was also one of the political mentors of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. During her early political career, Banerjee frequently visited Sen and sought his blessings. Sen is remembered for his honesty, integrity and sense of discipline. It was none other than Sen, who had advocated the introduction of a measure of food rationing in urban areas and introduced food-grain rationing in Bengal within a few months as there was a drastic food shortage in the state due to a countrywide drought. It led to the inception of the food-rationing system, which is still continuing.

The first medical college in the country was set up in Kolkata, the then capital of the British Empire in 1835. Dr Madhusudan Gupta was the first Indian to conduct an autopsy at the medical college. Later, four other government medical colleges were set up and named after illustrious medical practitioners Dr RG Kar and Dr Nil Ratan Sarkar.

Kolkata (then Calcutta) was the only city in the country which had four undergraduate government medical colleges and one post graduate institute at SSKM Hospital. As the demand to study medical science increased, the state government had augmented the number of state-run medical colleges. The name Tamralipta Government Medical College and Hospital comes significant as freedom fighters under the leadership of Satish Samanta had set up the Tamralipta Government against the British rule.

There was a port at Tamralipta, modern Tamuk, from where Chinese traveler Fa Hien left for China after completing his tour in India. The medical colleges at Barasat, Jhargram and Jalpaiguri have been named based on the places that are coming up.

Those are being named as Barasat Government Medical College and Hospital, Jhargram Government Medical College and Hospital and Jalpaiguri Government Medical College and Hospital respectively, according to a memo issued on Wednesday.

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