Telangana: Holidays declared for all educational institutions from Jan 8 to 16

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Monday directed the authorities to declare Sankranthi holidays for all educational institutions in the State from January 8 to 16. Addressing a review meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on the Covid situation in the State, the Chief Minister directed the officials to take immediate measures to strengthen the medical infrastructure […]

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Monday directed the authorities to declare Sankranthi holidays for all educational institutions in the State from January 8 to 16. Addressing a review meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on the Covid situation in the State, the Chief Minister directed the officials to take immediate measures to strengthen the medical infrastructure in all government hospitals including beds, oxygen beds, medicines, testing kits and other equipment. He said people need not worry about the increase in Omicron cases in the State, but wanted them to be cautious and strictly follow the Covid regulations issued by the government.

Briefing the Chief Minister, officials informed him that as per the Central government regulations, lockdown cannot be imposed in the State currently. However, they suggested against large gatherings including public meetings and rallies as the Covid was spreading fast. Stating that the State government was fully prepared to deal with the fresh wave of Covid, Chandrashekhar Rao directed the officials to convert all the beds in government hospitals to oxygen beds.

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The authorities have already converted 99 per cent of the beds and efforts are on to replace the remaining one per cent beds to oxygen beds on a war-footing. While the oxygen production has been increased from 140 tonnes to 324 tonnes currently, the Chief Minister wanted it to be scaled up to 500 tonnes at the earliest. He asked them to make one crore home isolation kits and two crore testing kits to be available for distribution. The authorities concerned were asked to ensure that doctors remain available round-the-clock in all government hospitals and fill any vacancies on priority.

In case of any posts falling vacant, guidelines are being prepared to fill the vacancies within 15 days. He asserted that medical and health facilities must be improved by enhancing the number of staff, beds and other infrastructure proportionate to the increasing population. Since the existing collectorates and other government offices are being shifted to the newly-inaugurated integrated district collectorate complexes, Chandrashekhar Rao suggested that the old offices be used to cater to medical and health needs by making temporary arrangements.

He also instructed the officials to increase the dialysis services as well as procure new dialysis machines. About 10,000 patients are availing the services offered in government hospitals. He also wanted the officials to establish more Basthi Dawakhanas in urban local bodies across the State to provide quality medical and health services to the poor. He commended the services being rendered through Basthi Dawakhanas in urban areas especially in Hyderabad.

Accordingly, it has been decided to establish one Basthi Dawakhana each in all six wards of Secunderabad Cantonment Board along with two Dawakhanas in Rasoolpura. Further, one Dawakhana will be set up in LB Nagar, Serlingampally, Qutbullahpur, Kukatpally, Uppal, Malkajgiri, Jalpally, Meerpet, Peerizadiguda, Boduppal, Jawaharnagar, and Nizampet. The Chief Minister asked the officials to establish four new Basthi Dawakhanas in Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation limits and three in Nizamabad.

He wanted them to open two Basthi Dawakhanas each in Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Ramagundam, Khammam, and Karimnagar. Similarly, one new Dawakhana will be opened in Jagitial, Suryapet, Siddipet, Miryalaguda, Kothagudem, Paloncha, Nirmal, Mancherial, Tandur, Vikarabad, Bodhan, Armoor, Kamareddy, Sangareddy, Zaheerabad, Gadwal, Wanaparthy, Siricilla, Tellapur, Bollaram, Aminpur, Gajwel and Medak.

Health Minister T Harish Rao, Legislative Affairs Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy, Endowments Minister A Indrakaran Reddy, MLCs T Ravinder Rao, Venktaram Reddy, MLAs C Laxmareddy, A Jeevan Reddy, Hanmanth Shinde, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Health Secretary SAM Rizvi, Director of Medical Education Ramesh Reddy, Director of Public Health G Srinivas Rao and other officials participated in the meeting.

‘Will abide by AP reorganization act’

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to make it clear that Telangana will abide by the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act at the meeting of the Chief Secretaries of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to be chaired by the Secretary of union Home Affairs in Delhi on January 12. He asserted that the State government will not compromise on its stand on Schedules 9 and 10 in the Act under any circumstance. At a meeting in Pragathi Bhavan here, the Chief Minister gave instructions to Somesh Kumar on the strategy to be adopted at the meeting of the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretaries. He said only if the Andhra Pradesh government is fully committed to the provisions of the Reorganization Act, the Telangana government will cooperate in resolving the issues. Otherwise, the State will stand by its decisions taken in the past. “The Andhra Pradesh government is creating unnecessary issues and deliberately pushing for things that are not in the Reorganization Act including the demand for a share in organisations like Singareni Collieries Company Limited. As a result, several issues have remained pending without any permanent solution,” he added. However, a final decision on attending the said meeting on January 12 will be taken after considering the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

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