Ratlam: Congress MP Kantilal Bhuria has been booked by the police for ‘inaugurating’ a government medical college in Ratlam a day before Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was scheduled to launch it, an official said on Thursday.

Bhuria, a former Union minister, represents the Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha seat.

In a game of one-upmanship ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state, Bhuria reached the Government Medical College at Banjli in Ratlam along with his supporters and a priest and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday.

“Since Tuesday is an auspicious day, I inaugurated the college as the project had been approved during the UPA government,” he told reporters after the event.

After the district administration was alerted about it, officials were rushed to the spot and police personnel were deployed there.

“A case under section 144 of CrPC (prohibiting assembly of more than four people in an area) and IPC sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) 448 (punishment for house-trespass) was registered against Bhuria and 15 others based on a complaint filed by the college administration in this regard,” Ratlam Superintendent of Police (SP) Gaurav Tiwari said.

On Wednesday, Chouhan formally inaugurated the medical college building that has been constructed at a cost of Rs 350 crore.

“It is a big gift to the Ujjain division and will set an example in the area of medical education,” he said at a the inauguration ceremony.

“After 1964, no new medical college was established in the state. But after I became the chief minister, we decided to set up a medical college in Sagar and five years back in Ratlam. Now the state has a total of 17 medical colleges, including 11 government ones,” he added.

Earlier, Madhya Pradesh used to produce 600 doctors annually, but now 2,600 medicos will be available every year in the state. This will also help us in serving the rural areas, Chouhan said.

According to him, a 750-bed hospital will also be constructed at the college for the people of the region.

Assembly elections in the state are scheduled to be held by the end of this year.