Harish Rao responds to Governor’s comments on medical college issue

Harish Rao said it would be a great help to people of Telangana if Raj Bhavan reoriented its focus and pressurised the Union govt to fulfill promises

Hyderabad: In a strong worded response to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan over her remarks on the non-allocation of government medical colleges to the State by the Centre, Health Minister T Harish Rao said it would be a great help to the people of Telangana if the Raj Bhavan reoriented its focus and pressurised the union government to fulfill promises of setting up a tribal university and a rail coach factory as promised in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014.

In a series of tweets on Sunday, Harish Rao stated that gross injustice was meted out to Telangana in sanctioning of medical colleges despite repeated pleas from State government to the Centre.

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“Of 157 medical colleges approved by Centre, Telangana got none. The union government discriminated and deceived Telangana in all three phases of allotment of colleges,” he said.

Referring to union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that medical colleges were not allotted to Telangana as the State government proposed districts that already have medical colleges, Harish Rao questioned who was misleading the people.

“What is worse is union Ministers’ contrasting statements on medical colleges. One said Telangana didn’t make any request, another said government wanted colleges in Khammam and Karimnagar. By stating that the Centre didn’t give a nod, because private colleges are already set up, who is misleading people?” he asked.

The Health Minister said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had established 12 medical colleges in Telangana with the State’s own funds. He said the medical colleges were allotted in tune with the vision of the Chief Minister to set up one medical college per each district.

“Telangana tops in the country with 19 MBBS seats per one lakh population. Instead of hurling abuses, the Centre and the Governor should appreciate the State government for opening eight medical colleges in a single day,” he said.

Harish Rao wondered why no one talks about injustice meted to Telangana and why none would find fault with Centre in the interest of the State. He questioned the union government for sanctioning 52 percent of estimated funds to AIIMS in Gujarat, while Telangana got only 11.4 percent even when both the projects were sanctioned in 2018.

“Instead of giving funds to Bibinagar AIIMS, which is supposed to be on par with Delhi AIIMS, the union Minister makes false claims blaming the State government,” he said in another tweet. Telangana received only Rs 156 crore of Rs 1,365 crore proposed for Bibinagar AIIMS.