“Is there a super-speciality hospital sanctioned for Anantapur? Does it exist somewhere?” asks Organisation for Protection of Democratic Rights (OPDR) State general secretary Ramkumar. He feels the people of Anantapur have been hoodwinked by politicians.
Referring to a statement of Telugu Desam Party leader and former Anantapur Urban MLA Vaikuntam Prabhakar Chowdary, published in these columns on Monday, the OPDR leader said this project was not secured by any TDP leader, but was sanctioned during the UPA government reign in 2013.
‘Extension of GGH’
The current project is not part of the provisions under the A.P. Reorganisation Act, but an extension of the existing Government General Hospital for the strengthening of its infrastructure and no separate manpower allocation was made, he said. “It is wrong to call this a super-speciality hospital,” he observed.
As per the A.P. Reorganisation Act, the Central government undertook the burden of progress and sustainable development by taking necessary measures to establish institutions of national importance as enumerated in the 13th Schedule. In the schedule under the head ‘Education’ item No. 2 “is AIIMS-type super-speciality hospital cum teaching institution in successor State of Andhra Pradesh.”
‘AIIMS shifted’
“This provision clearly establishes that there is no provision for a super-specility hospital at Anantapur. The AIIMS provided in the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 was to be established at Anantapur as announced by the then Chief Minister in the Assembly, but it later was shifted to Mangalagiri in Guntur district,” he said.
“None of the Rayalaseema leaders either in the TDP or the YSRCP opposed this shifting of AIIMS to Mangalagiri despite the entire region not having any super-speciality hospital run by the government,” he said.
MLA’s version
Asked about this, Anantapur Urban MLA Anantha Venkatarami Reddy confirmed to The Hindu that the project coming up was not a super-speciality hospital. He said that though he had got one sanctioned by the Centre while he was an MP in 2013 in a tough fight with the then Visakhapatnam MP, that project could not be implemented as the State got divided and a similar one as the AIIMS was made part of the AP Reorganisation Act, but Mr. Naidu took it to Mangalagiri.
Mr. Ramkumar felt that if the YSRCP MLAs and MPs brought pressure on the State government, even now AIIMS could be brought back to Anantapur to fulfil the dearth of such an institution. There was no separate sanction for specialised doctors, paramedics or other staff or emoluments and no G.O. had been issued for the super-speciality hospital, he added.
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