Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday announced that a medical college and hospital will be set up in the underdeveloped Kandhamal district with an investment of Rs 504 crore. Around 100 students will be enrolled in the medical college every year, while the hospital will have 500 beds, the chief minister said.

Patnaik made this announcement during a visit to Kandhamal to distribute the health smart cards under Odisha government’s flagship programme Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, a universal health insurance scheme.

Under the scheme, a beneficiary is entitled to get medical benefit up to Rs 5 lakh and a woman beneficiary is entitled to receive cashless treatment of Rs 10 lakh every year. In Kandhamal district alone, 6.5 lakh people will avail health benefits under the Biju Swasthya Kalayan Yojana.

While distributing the health cards, Patnaik said the government aims to bring 3.5 crore people of 96 lakh families under the Biju Swasthya Kalayan Yojana and all of them will get the smart health cards. “The life of every human being is valuable. Now just showing the health cards, the beneficiary can avail medical facilities in 200 hospitals of the country,” he said. So far 16 districts have been covered under the health insurance scheme of Odisha government.

The chief minister also laid the foundation stones for various projects worth Rs 276 crore and announced that the ongoing work on the 220-33 KV grid station will be completed soon.

However, the chief minister faced the ire of Congress workers in Kandhamal for not taking action against home minister Dibya Shankar Mishra who had allegedly patronised the main accused in the 24-year-old teacher murder case in Kalahandi. Congress workers tried to show black flags to Patnaik and later courted arrest in Kandhamal.

The district was in news in 2008 when it witnessed communal violence following the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, a Hindu monk, on August 23, 2008. Later, thousands of people belonging to the Christian community left the district.