There has been a marked improvement in the health condition of Koraput freedom fighter laxmi Indira Panda’s grandson Babula Panda, who is now undergoing treatment at the SCB Medical College Hospital here for last two

days after he was rescued in a critical condition from Mancheswar in Bhubaneswar on Thursday afternoon.

“The patient’s general condition is normal and his conscious level has improved. He is able to speak now,” said SCB Medical College Principal and Medicine Professor Siddharth Das on Saturday. He added that after the dialysis on Friday, Babula’s kidney is functioning normally and, if required, he would undergo the dialysis process again.

In the meantime, the slugfest between the ruling BJD and opposition BJP continued over the issue of Babula’s disappearance. While a team of BJP workers led by senior party leader Samir Dey was denied permission by the police to meet Babula in the hospital, local BJD MlA Debashis Samantray termed the police action “appropriate” and once again blamed the BJP for the woes of the freedom fighter’s family.

local Mangalabag police inspector Arun Kumar Swain said that due to medical exigencies, there has been a restriction on the visitors to meet Babula Panda, who is now in an ICU. He said except the treating doctors, paramedics and his family members, no one is allowed to meet him in the hospital now.

Thirty-year-old Babula had mysteriously disappeared after he and his parents were felicitated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bhubaneswar on April 16. Soon, the focus shifted to the family as Babula and his parents were separated at the Bhubaneswar railway station.

While Babula’s mother Sujata boarded a wrong train and was later rescued from Baleswar, his father Surendra returned home alone as Babula disappeared from the station. The BJD jumped into the fray to fish in the troubled waters by alleging that the BJP had put the family into trouble in the name felicitation.

Even as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was quick to order the DGP to trace Babula, the BJP soon came out with a serious charge alleging that former Minister Rabi Narayan Nanda and present Minister Pranab Prakash Das had, in fact, kidnapped Babula and kept him in confinement with an aim to make light of the Prime Minister’s gesture.