Centre admits ‘ignoring’ Telangana, no new medical colleges for State

Union Health Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said in Rajya Sabha, that no new medical colleges sanctioned for Telangana for the past six years

Hyderabad: This is straight from the horse’s mouth! Telangana has been completely ignored by the Union government in sanction of government medical colleges for the past six years by the Centre’s own admission. In stark contrast, the TRS government has established five new medical colleges in Telangana since achieving statehood in 2014.

Time and again, the State government has pointed out the discriminatory attitude of the BJP government towards Telangana, which nevertheless has emerged as a progressive and frontline State in the country topping the charts on several fronts. Leave alone sanction of a medical college, the Union government has not given a single educational institution of repute such as a IIIT or a tribal university that was assured to the State in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and his deputy Ashwini Kumar Choubey, responding to different questions by TRS MP KR Suresh Reddy and BJP’s GVL Narasimha Rao in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, said the Union government had approved setting up of 157 new medical colleges under a centrally sponsored scheme (CSS) for ‘establishment of new medical colleges attached with existing district/referral hospitals’ in three phases.

Under the scheme, each medical college is established at an estimated cost of Rs 189 crore with 90 per cent of funding from the Union government and the remaining from the State. While the Centre sanctioned the highest number of 27 new medical colleges to Uttar Pradesh and three to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh under the scheme, no college was sanctioned to Telangana.

For the record, the then State governments in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh had set up just five government medical colleges in the Telangana region in 65 years. But after the bifurcation, the TRS government established five new medical colleges since 2014 — in Suryapet, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Siddipet, and Adilabad. All these were established without any support from the Centre within three years of the State formation. Only three private medical colleges have been approved for establishment in Telangana in the last three years. At present, the State has 34 medical colleges — 11 government and 23 private.

TRS working president and Minister KT Rama Rao has repeatedly highlighted the BJP government’s step-motherly treatment of the State. He pointed out that in the last six years, the Centre had sanctioned seven IITs, seven IIMs, two IISERs, 16 IIITs, four NIDs, 157 medical colleges and 84 Navodaya Vidyalayas to other States but not a single of these was sanctioned for Telangana.

Under another CSS for ‘upgradation of Central/State government medical colleges for increasing MBBS seats in existing medical colleges’, the Central government released Rs 2,451.1 crore to 48 medical colleges till date. Not so surprisingly, the State was again handed out a raw deal, not getting even a single rupee from these allocations. A meagre amount of Rs 42.75 crore has been released to the State in the last 10 years under another scheme meant for strengthening and upgrading State government medical colleges to start new PG disciplines and increasing seats.

However, the Centre approved proposals for upgradation of three government medical colleges in the State for setting up super-specialty blocks under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). Accordingly, it approved Rs 100 crore for Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences of Hyderabad, Rs 120 crore for Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences of Adilabad and Rs 120 crore for Kakatiya Medical College of Warangal. However, none of these funds has been released so far.

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