KCR’s Telangana was ahead of AP, but Revanth Reddy now wants to compete with AP

The Health tourism hub would be spread over 500 to 1000 acres and land would be acquired accordingly.

Hyderabad: There was a time when Telangana was publicly accepted, even by the Centre, to be much ahead of Andhra Pradesh on multiple counts, with the then Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao stating that AP was no competition for Telangana and that the youngest State had advanced to a level where it was much ahead of most other States.

However, current Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy appears to be oblivious to this fact, and in fact, on Saturday, said he wanted to compete with Andhra Pradesh in welfare and development to ‘ensure Telangana’s growth’.

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Revanth Reddy, who has of late been full of praise for his former party chief and now counterpart in Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, said he now saw Naidu as a competitor, and indirectly, that the AP CM was one of the best in the field.

Stressing that one has to compete with “the best” to excel in any field, he said that since Naidu took oath as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, he had got an opportunity to compete with him in welfare and development and to ensure Telangana’s growth. Speaking at the 24th annual day celebrations of the Basavatarakam Indo-American Cancer Hospital and Research Institute here on Saturday, he said this had led him to think about extending his working hours.

“Earlier, I used to think that working for 12 hours would be sufficient. But Chandrababu Naidu is working for 18 hours and we cannot afford to relax. Our officers and entire team should work for 18 hours and both the Telugu States should compete in welfare and development, besides standing as role models to others,” Revanth Reddy said, even as Naidu’s brother-in-law and Basavatarakam Cancer Hospital managing trustee and chairman Nandamuri Balakrishna sat on the dais.

Revanth Reddy also showered praises on the cancer hospital founder and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister NT Rama Rao, stating that the idea to establish the Basavatarakam hospital was mooted in 1988 as a no profit motive service to the people.

NTR had introduced revolutionary welfare schemes like Rs.2 a kg rice, Janata garments and others and laid seeds for formation of coalition governments. Earlier, the Chief Minister said the State government was planning to establish a Health Tourism Hub in the vicinity of the Shamshabad international airport. The Health tourism hub would be spread over 500 to 1000 acres and land would be acquired accordingly.

All top institutes would be invited to set up their units here, and since many patients from Middle East countries come to Hyderabad for treatment, a green channel would be established to ensure accommodation for them, he said. The Basavatarakam hospital management had sought additional land for expansion of their services and would be allotted land in the proposed health tourism hub, he added.