Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone of Balangir Medical College here for the third time on Sunday.
Patnaik, who arrived at the helipad constructed in the proposed college site from Tusura, was received by Rajya Sabha member AU Singh Deo, leader of Opposition Narsingha Mishra and Ministers Jogendra Behera and Atanu Sabyasatchi Nayak.
Already, the construction work of medical college is in progress and is scheduled to be completed in two years.
The Chief Minister gave away laptops to meritorious students.
Addressing a public meeting at the Rajendra College field, Patnaik observed that besides irrigation, migration is a major problem of Balangir district. For the welfare of workers, the daily wage has been increased to Rs200 and provisions for labour pension and insurance have been made, he said.
For development of irrigation, the lower Suktel, lower Indra and Titilagrah irrigation project stage-2 are under construction, and once completed these projects would irrigate 48,000 hectares of farmland in the district, Patnaik said.
AU Singh Deo demanded setting up of an Agriculture University and a permanent Bench of the Odessa High Court at Balangir. He also requested the Chief Minister to take step to extend the crop insurance deadline and early crop cutting to know the status of loss of crop in the district.
The Chief Minister left for Titilagarh to inaugurate other development projects there.
