TIMS construction in limbo; BRS slams Congress govt for stagnation in health sector

BRS leaders, led by T Harish Rao, slammed the Congress government for stalling TIMS at LB Nagar. They highlighted ignored plans, delayed medical colleges, and unmet healthcare commitments, warning of public unrest if work doesn’t resume

Hyderabad: The construction of the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) at LB Nagar, which has literally been stalled, with the Congress government being able to complete only five floors over the last two years, has come in for severe criticism from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). The principal opposition party pointed out that the hospital should have been operational by now, if the Congress government had not ignored land acquisition, tenders, designs and funding, all of which were finalised when the BRS was in power itself.

Visiting the construction site along with a delegation of BRS leaders on Saturday, senior MLA and former Health Minister T Harish Rao came down heavily on the Congress government for the two-year stagnation in the health sector and deterioration across medical and health services in the State. Rao warned Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy of an impending public revolt if critical healthcare projects were not completed on a war footing. He said the Congress lacked the “foresight” that former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao demonstrated in planning robust healthcare infrastructure post the COVID pandemic.

“If K Chandrashekhar Rao had foresight for a hundred years, the Congress party has demonstrated a total lack of it,” Harish Rao said, highlighting how Chandrashekhar Rao envisioned four TIMS super-specialty hospitals around Hyderabad, along with a 2,000-bed expansion of NIMS, to ensure that quality care reached the masses. Previous governments in the undivided State had failed to build beyond colonial-era facilities like Gandhi, Osmania and King Koti hospitals, but Chandrashekhar Rao prioritised the poor by allocating funds and nearly completing these projects, he said.

Harish Rao lamented the two-year stagnation under Congress rule, where land acquisition, tenders, designs, and funding, all finalised by BRS, were ignored. At the LB Nagar TIMS site, he pointed out that BRS had integrated it with an existing cellar to build a six-storey structure, but the current administration could manage only five floors in two years.

“If BRS was in power, these hospitals would have started serving the public by now. Revanth Reddy is deliberately delaying works out of malice, fearing that KCR’s name and the good deeds of the BRS will be remembered,” he said, also slamming the Congress government’s decision to cancel or merge BRS-sanctioned medical colleges in Maheshwaram and Quthbullapur, undermining the goal of super-specialty services for the underprivileged.

“KCR planned medical colleges in all 33 districts, increasing MBBS seats from 2,850 to 10,000. We sanctioned the Ranga Reddy district medical college in Maheshwaram via a GO, but they scrapped it and merged it with TIMS LB Nagar. Similarly, the Quthbullapur sanction was merged with TIMS Alwal, scrapping the planned 500-bed hospital there,” Harish Rao said, adding that such moves left these areas without essential facilities.

Calling it “progress under BRS, regression under Congress”, he also flagged the government’s failure to pay salaries to Basti Dawakhana staff for six months, despite Revanth Reddy’s promise of disbursal by the first of every month. “Congress takes pride in starving these centres,” he said, also highlighting the Rs 1,400 crore in pending Aarogyasri bills rendering the scheme ineffective, the unexplained halt to the Kanti Velugu eyecare programme and a broader downturn in healthcare access. He demanded steps for immediate completion of Warangal Health City and Hyderabad’s TIMS hospitals.

“Don’t play politics with hospitals that save lives. Dates and deadlines change, but work doesn’t progress. We’re warning Revanth Reddy: Complete these on a war footing, or a revolt from the people is inevitable,” he asserted.

Harish Rao was accompanied by former minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy, local MLA Sudhir Reddy, MLAs KP Vivekananda and Kaleru Venkatesh, MLC Yadav Reddy among other leaders.