It all started with the Governor appreciating the super specialty block of the Government Medical College, Kozhikode in Kerala funded by the Centre and an evidently BRS supporter asked her: “How many medical colleges given to Telangana?”

Dr Soundararajan then hit back at the BRS government in Telangana, saying, “When every state applied for new medical colleges under the PMSSY scheme, Telangana failed to apply on time as stated by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandavia. You sleep and wake up late and ask. Tamil Nadu got 11 medical colleges in a single year.”

She then suggested looking up Parliament proceedings where JP Nadda as the then Health Minister had said that Telangana didn’t apply on time when 147 medical colleges were approved.

Then Telangana Health Minister Rao wrote a series of tweets to refute her allegations, saying that gross injustice was meted out to the state by not sanctioning a single medical college despite repeated pleas from the state government to the Centre.

He said that the Union Government discriminated and deceived Telangana in all three phases of allotment of colleges. He also cited the contradicting statements of Union Ministers made in this context including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who said the Centre didn’t give a nod because of the existence of private colleges.

He then pointed out that the state government has set out to set up 12 medical colleges with its own funds with the aim of having one medical college in each district. He claimed Telangana topped in the country with 19 MBBS per lakh population.

“Instead of hurling abuses, the Centre and the Governor should appreciate for opening eight colleges in a single day,” Harish Rao wrote on Twitter.

He went on to question why only Rs 156 crore of the sanctioned Rs 1365 crore was released for AIIMS, Bibinagar, pointing that the AIIMS in Gujarat got 52 per cent of the funds while TS got 11.4 per cent though both were sanctioned in 2018.

Then he criticized the Raj Bhavan saying, “Why no one voices about injustice meted out to Telangana? Why not find fault with the Centre in the interest of Telangana? It would be a great help to the people of Telangana if Raj Bhavan reorients its focus and pushes the Government of India for Tribal University and Rail Coach Factory as promised in the AP Reorganization Act.”

Advertisement