TIMS deadlines keep shifting, BRS slams Congress for stalling hospital projects

The Congress government in Telangana faces criticism from the BRS over repeated delays in operationalising the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences facilities at LB Nagar, Sanathnagar and Alwal. Despite multiple announcements, including a promise to open the Sanathnagar facility within 30 days of October 23, no progress has been made.

Hyderabad: Shifting deadlines is apparently becoming a permanent feature of the Congress government, with the construction of the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) being a classic example.

Ever since the Congress came to power, there have been multiple announcements on the TIMS facilities at LB Nagar, Sanathnagar and Alwal becoming operational. From January 2025 to the State Formation Day on June 2 this year to August, the deadlines have kept changing. The last was when the government said on October 23, that the TIMS Sanathnagar would be made operational “within 30 days”.

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With nothing much happening on that front, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi has again questioned the delay in opening the crucial healthcare facilities for the public. Slamming the Congress government for ‘criminal negligence’ and ‘playing with people’s lives’,

BRS leader and senior MLA T. Harish Rao on Sunday tore into the administration over its failure to launch the promised medical services at the TIMS Sanathnagar. Holding Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy responsible for ‘deliberate delays’, he said the broken deadlines had left Hyderabad’s poor without critical healthcare.

Pointing out the government’s failure to operationalise medical services at the TIMS Sanathnagar, exactly one month after an official announcement promising a launch within 30 days, he asked Revanth Reddy to respond to the TIMS fiasco. Stating that the Congress government was squarely responsible for the delay in completion of the new TIMS facilities taken up during the BRS regime at Sanathnagar, Alwal and LB Nagar, he said the government had made zero efforts to fulfill the commitment.

He pointed out that on October 23, the government had declared that patient services would begin at the Sanathnagar TIMS facility within a month. “Today marks the completion of that one month period. It doesn’t seem like it is starting today, or will they announce another date like before?” he asked, stating that the administration was indulging in criminal negligence by not providing healthcare to the poor, with two years wasted on shifting deadlines and unfulfilled promises.

Drawing a poetic parallel, Rao likened the Congress government’s repeated delays to a line from noted Telugu actor and poet Tanikella Bharani: “It is like a man wishing his sister’s wedding should happen again and again’!” He also decried the “shameful” imbalance in priorities, where “attention on looting government lands” overshadows hospital development’, adding hyperbolically that the handling of these projects was so dismal “even a donkey would commit suicide’.

Contrasting the current stagnation with the achievements by the BRS regime under former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, Harish Rao said post-COVID, Chandrashekhar Rao had envisioned TIMS hospitals across Hyderabad’s four directions for advanced care. On April 26, 2022, he laid the foundation stones for three government multi-speciality hospitals in a single day, creating a national record.

“Constructions progressed at breakneck speed under the BRS, but now they are crawling like a snail after the Congress took over,” he said, stating that Revanth Reddy was deliberately delaying the construction fearing that Chandrashekhar Rao would garner credit for the projects.

“For the sake of commissions, the works were left incomplete for two years depriving people of the much needed medical services. It amounts to playing with people’s lives. This is what the Revanth Reddy government is doing,” he charged, pointing out that a BRS delegation’s inspection of the Kothapet TIMS site on October 3 had highlighted the government’s lapses.

Thereafter, the government had a hurried review and announced dates for their completion. But even that has not happened, he said.

Calling for an end to the practice of abusing the BRS, Harish Rao urged the Congress government to complete the projects on a war footing.

“With the thought that even the poor should get the highest medical treatment, fulfill KCR’s vision and provide services to the people,” he said.