TS Governor, health minister exchange jibes over medical college allocations

Hyderabad: Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan and health minister T. Harish Rao were engulfed in a Twitter war on Sunday, after the former took a jibe at the BRS for not implementing the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) and claiming that the Centre was not funding medical education in the state.

Terming the PMSSY a “visionary” scheme that led to a “medical revolution” in the past eight years, by funding one medical college in every district, the Governor slammed the Telangana government’s inaction.

“When every state applied for new med colleges under the PMSSY scheme Telangana failed to apply in time as stated by Union health minister Mansukh Mandavia. You sleep and wake up late and ask. TN got 11 medical colleges in a single year,” she said.

Harish Rao countered her remarks by saying that gross injustice had been meted out to Telangana in sanctioning medical colleges, despite repeated pleas from the state government to the Centre. He said of the 157 medical colleges approved by the Centre, none were for Telangana.

He said the Centre had “discriminated against and deceived” the state government in all three phases of college allotments and slammed contrasting statements made by Union ministers on the issue.

“One said Telangana did not make any request, another said the government wanted colleges in Khammam and Karimnagar. By stating that the Centre did not give a nod because private colleges are already set up, who is misleading people?” Harish Rao asked.

He said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had allocated state funds to build 12 medical colleges in districts and that the state topped the country by recording 19 MBBS seats per lakh people. “Instead of hurling abuses, the Centre and the Governor should appreciate the Telangana government for opening eight medical colleges in a single day,” Harish Rao said.

He said it would be a great help to the people “if Raj Bhavan reorients its focus and pushes the Centre for the Tribal University and Rail Coach Factory, as promised in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.”

BRS MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy called the Governor’s statement “highly unfortunate” and said it was “a false charge” made without checking the facts. He said that BJP MLA Etala Rajendar, the then health minister, had met previous Union health ministers several times, unsuccessfully, for funds.

BRS MLA K. P. Vivekanand said the Governor was making a “political statement” and creating hurdles for the state government. He called her statement an attempt to defame the BRS government to help the BJP.