Telangana: Harish Rao blames Congress for neglecting primary healthcare

In a full throttle attack, Harish Rao pointed to the locked Keesara Health and Wellness Centre in Medchal Malkajgiri district as a glaring example of mismanagement

Hyderabad: Former Minister and senior BRS MLA T Harish Rao criticised the Congress government for crippling the State’s primary healthcare system and neglecting the poor. He blamed the government over its failure to support Palle and Basthi Dawakhanas, leaving underprivileged communities without basic medical services.

“The credit for opening these hospitals goes to the previous BRS government, while the current Congress government has turned public healthcare worse,” he said, demanding immediate intervention from Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Health Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha to strengthen Palle and Basthi Dawakhanas and the Telangana Diagnostic Services.

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In a full throttle attack, Harish Rao pointed to the locked Keesara Health and Wellness Centre in Medchal Malkajgiri district as a glaring example of mismanagement. He questioned why the government was ignoring failing Basthi Dawakhanas across Hyderabad, Nizamabad, Adilabad, and Mahabubnagar districts.

“Out Patient services in these Palle Dawakhanas have drastically declined, while the Basthi Dawakhanas are being shut down depriving free primary healthcare to the poor and the needy under Congress rule,” he said.

The former Health Minister reminded that under former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s leadership, Telangana’s healthcare system was a national model, with over 500 Basthi and Palle Dawakhanas, as well as 134 free diagnostic tests through T-Diagnostics.

However, these institutions were now struggling due to staff shortages, lack of medicines and mismanagement.

“Even after 14 months in power, the Congress government hasn’t conducted a single review meeting on healthcare,” he said, warning that the poor were now forced to pay at private hospitals. He accused the government of ignoring medicine shortages and failing to pay salaries on time, pushing Telangana’s once-thriving public healthcare sector into crisis.