12 HOUR TALCHER CLOSURE SUCCESSFUL

DHIRAMOHAN RAY

Odishabarta

TALCHER :The Talcher Pabitra Mohan Medical College Action Committee’s 12 hour closure in Talcher demanding to start the treatment of patients at Pabitra Mohan Medical College was successful on Friday. Thousands crores of rupees have been spent on the construction of buildings and the purchase of related equipments for Talcher Medical College. Even after five years of construction, it has not been functional. The equipments are rotting. MCL has already given the required funds to the state government for the management of the medical college. Later, the state

government announced that it would take over the management of the medical college. In the academic year 2026-27, one hundred MBBS students have admited into this institute and started learning. But the treatment of patients has not started yet. Patients are being treated at the Angul District Head Quarter Hospital instead of Talcher Pabitra Mohan Medical College. In protest against this, the Talcher Medical College Action Committee submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the Talcher Sub Collector on 28th of April 2026. However, no action was taken by the government.

In such a situation, the action committee called for a Talcher bandh as per the previous decision. 90 percent of the traders and business men of Talcher supported this and kept their shops and markets closed.

The public along with various organizations also expressed their unconditional support for the bandh. As a result, coal transportation from all the coal mines of MCL was stopped. Traffic was disrupted due to the blockade at Ballahar Chhak on National Highway No. 149. Thousands of coal laden trucks and other vehicles were stopped. The police detained 7 protesters at Talcher police station and 4 at Colliery police station and later released them on personal remand. Talcher MLA Brajkishore Pradhan, along with Action Committee President Abhay Kumar Pani, Secretary Bijay Kumar Pradhan, Nakhia Sahu, Vinod Lal, Gagan Bihari Das, Keshab Bhutia, Chaitanya Pradhan, Dasarathi Sahu, Sulekha Sethi, Anand ch. Acharya, Pradeep Moharana led the major movement.The committee has expressed its gratitude to the people of Talcher for the success of the strike. It has been warned by the committee that if the state government does not start the treatment of patients immediately, an indefinite shutdown will be called in Talcher in the coming days.