Mamoni-funded PHC to be 30-bed hospital

GUWAHATI: The dream project of noted litterateur Mamoni Raisom Goswami is soon going to become 30 bedded hospital. Deputy commissioner (Kamrup), S K Roy, informed on Friday that full effort is on to convert the primary health centre (PHC) at Amranga (Mamoni's ancestral village) into a 30-bedded hospital and the number of doctors are going to be increased after reviewing the developments of the hospital recently.
"The quarters to accommodate the doctors and staff are ready. There will be four doctors. Presently, there are two doctors at the PHC, an MBBS doctor and an ayurvedic doctor," said Roy.
Mamoni donated Rs 35 lakh towards the construction of the hospital from the sum she received in Netherlands when she was honoured with the Prince Claus Award in 2008. The Amranga PHC functioned as a mini PHC then and the author had donated the sum for converting it into a full-fledged PHC. When construction was on, health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had announced that it would get the makeover of a hospital. The formal inauguration of the 12-bedded PHC was deferred because of her ill health. Named after the Jnanpith awardee's father and paternal uncle, the Umakanta & Chandrakanta Goswami PHC, the health centre, however, is still waiting for the author to recover and inaugurate it. Her father had donated the land in 1952 over which the PHC has come up.
Jayanta Goswami, cousin of Mamoni, said, "With just two doctors it is not possible to run the PHC where people from adjoining villages also come for treatment. The PHC has the necessary infrastructure but there should be more doctors."
He recalled that when she got the award, the first thing she did was to announce that the mini PHC would be upgraded. "She has always been a humanist," said her cousin.
Goswami went on to add that in Amranga, an old man would live all by himself in a house, shunned by everyone as he was suffering from leprosy. "But people from our village would serve food to him on humanitarian grounds. Mamoni baideu was so sympathetic to his cause that her father told her, she should serve more people later in life," said Goswami.
When she won the award, given to people for their exemplary contribution in the field of culture and development, she remembered her father's words and chose to play the Good Samaritan again.