Health Dept gets Warangal prison land

Documents handed over to MGMH Superintendent; about 900 prisoners shifted within a week

Warangal Urban: With the State government’s deciding to construct a super-speciality hospital on the premises of the Warangal Central Prison to provide quality healthcare for the people of North Telangana, the Prisons Department shifted its inmates within a week and handed over the land to the Superintendent of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital (MGMH) on Thursday.

Speaking to ‘Telangana Today’, Rajiv Trivedi, Director-General of Prisons & Correctional Services said: “The process of shifting the inmates commenced on June 1 and we could complete it by shifting over 900 prisoners besides transporting the entire machinery from the prison to hand over the land to the Medical and Health Department,” he added.

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Meanwhile, MGMH Superintendent Dr V Chandrashekhar said he had received the documents of alienation of the land measuring 56.36 acres from the Prison’s Superintendent Santhosh Kumar Roy in the presence of the District Collector and the Warangal Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) on Thursday. He then wrote to Superintending Engineer (SE), Roads and Buildings Department, asking him to demolish the buildings. “The process of demolishing the structures, including 98 barracks except for the main gate and quarters of the staff, has been completed by Saturday afternoon,” he added. However, petrol bunks located on the prison’s land and owned by the Prisons Department will continue to operate, according to the sources.

“As Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao wanted to construct the super-speciality hospital at the earliest for the benefit of the people of North Telangana, we are taking all steps to complete it within a year,” Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao said. The 1,500-bed hospital will be an annexe to the Kakatiya Medical College (KMC). The buildings of the MGMH would be demolished once the new hospital becomes operational to construct a Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) on the premises. The MGMH is spread over 26 acres and the MCH will be on the lines of Niloufer Hospital in Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, sources said Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao is likely to lay the foundation for the super-speciality hospital in Warangal and a state-of-the-art central prison (Rs 250 crore) at Mamnoor on the outskirts of Warangal on the same day.

Shifting of prisoners

A total of 875 inmates were shifted to different prisons while 20 open-air prisoners stay put in Warangal to run the petrol pumps. It is said the Maoist and other dreaded criminals were shifted to Cherlapalli (225) and Chenchalguda (116) prisons, and general prisoners to Nizamabad (148), Adilabad (58), and Khammam (152) prisons and women’s prison. However, the undertrial (UT) prisoners were shifted to sub-jails in erstwhile Warangal district.

The machinery and the material used in manufacturing almirahs and other products of the ‘My Nation’ scheme were shifted to Cherlapalli and Chenchalguda prisons.

While the Warangal Central Prison had a staff of 267, they will be transferred and given postings considering their willingness. The prison was established in 1886 on 65.4 acres.

A Cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister on Sunday directed the authorities to hand over the prison land to the Health Department by month-end. Sources said the State government had already identified 120 acres, against the requirement of 130 acres, adjacent to the 4th TSSPC battalion at Mamnoor for the new central prison.

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