16-05-2025
Government taluk hospital in Puttur will be upgraded in two phases for opening a medical college, says CM Siddaramaiah
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said here on Friday that the 100-bed taluk government hospital at Puttur will be upgraded to a 250-bed hospital in the first phase of the plan to open a new government medical college there.
He addressed a gathering after inaugurating the new Praja Soudha, a complex that will house over 30 government offices, including the office of the Deputy Commissioner, at Padil in the city.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said that another 250 beds will be added to the hospital in the second phase to open the medical college. He had announced the establishment of the medical college in the 2025-26 Budget. When it comes up, it will be the first government medical college in the coastal belt. Currently, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts together have eight private medical colleges. Of them, seven are in Dakshina Kannada alone.
The CM said that, being a district of learned and educated people, communal violence in Dakshina Kannada should stop. The coastal district always stood ahead in the education sector. It should emerge as 'Sarva janangada shantiya thota' (A garden of peace for all communities).
Tulu as second language
Responding to legislators' demand that the State government recognise Tulu as the second language of the State after Kannada, Mr. Siddaramaiah said he would examine the matter. But Kannada will be supreme, he said.
He said that Dakshina Kannada will soon emerge as a 'podi-free' district as all eligible people will get RTCs (Records of Rights, Tenancy and Crops), and errors in RTCs will be rectified.
Taking on the critics who argued that the State government is left with no funds for taking up development projects as revenue has been diverted to its guarantee schemes, Mr. Siddaramaiah, whose Congress government will complete two years next week, said that it is not true.
'The State's capital expenditure was up by over ₹31,000 crores in a year,' he said, adding that it proves the critics wrong. The volume of the 2025-26 Budget was up by ₹38,000 crore, he said.
Speaker U.T. Khader, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Urban Development Minister B. Suresh, Minister in charge of Dakshina Kannada Dinesh Gundu Rao, and Dakshina Kannada Member of Parliament Captain Brijesh Chowta were present.
Mangaluru City South MLA D. Vedavyasa Kamath presided over.
