Hyderabad: A Twitter war broke out between Telangana Governor Tamilisai and Health Minister Harish Rao over the issue of medical college allocations. He questioned the Centre’s approach as to why Gujarat AIIMS got 52 percent of the funds while Telangana got only 11.4 percent of the funds.
First Published Mar 5, 2023, 7:10 PM IST
Tamilisai Soundararajan VS Harish Rao: The distance between the Telangana government and the state governor has been growing for some time now. The direct war of words between the two has increased in recent times. It has become a common thing in the state for the governor to make comments targeting the government and the ruling party to criticize the governor. In the same vein, Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s comments on the allotment of central medical colleges to the state have become a hot topic politically. Minister Harish Rao was furious over the governor’s comments. It was in this background that a Twitter war was fought between Raj Bhavan and Harish Rao.
Responding to a Twitter user’s question about how many medical colleges have been given to Telangana as stated by Union Minister Mansukh Mandavia, the Governor stated that the state government has failed to apply in time. “You wake up late and ask. 11 medical colleges came up in one year in Tamil Nadu,” he replied.
— Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan (@DrTamilisaiGuv) March 5, 2023
Minister Harish Rao was furious over the governor’s comments. He said that people know what kind of behavior the Center is. Minister Harish Rao said that out of Rs.1365 crore estimated for the completion of Bibinagar AIIMS, the Center has released only Rs.156 crore. He questioned the central government why 52 percent of the funds allocated to Gujarat AIIMS got only 11.4 percent to Telangana. He said it would be very useful for the people of Telangana if the Raj Bhavan shifted its focus and put pressure on the Indian government for a tribal university and a rail coach factory as promised in the Andhra Pradesh Repartition Act 2014.
He questioned why no one is talking about the injustice done to Telangana. “Why don’t you blame the Center for the interests of Telangana? As per the promise given by APRA in 2014, if Raj Bhavan shifts its focus and puts pressure on the Government of India for a tribal university and a rail coach factory, it will be of great help to the people of Telangana,” the minister said. He said that it is a fact that even though the state government has appealed to the center several times, Telangana has been met with great injustice in the grant of medical colleges.
He said that out of 157 medical colleges approved by the Centre, not a single one has been allotted to Telangana. He alleged that the central government had discriminated and cheated Telangana in all three phases of allotment of colleges. Referring to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s comments that Telangana has not been allocated medical colleges as the state government has already proposed districts with medical colleges, he questioned who is misleading the people. “It is bad that the Union Ministers are making different statements about medical colleges. One said that Telangana has not made any request, while the other said that government colleges should be established in Khammam and Karimnagar. Who is misleading the people by saying that the Center has not given permission because private colleges have already been set up,” he asked.
Chief Minister KCR has established 12 medical colleges in Telangana with his own funds. According to the vision of establishing one medical college for each district, medical colleges have been allocated. He said that Telangana is at the top in the country with 19 MBBS seats per lakh population. Instead of resorting to insults, the Center and the Governor should congratulate the state government for opening 8 medical colleges on the same day. In 2018, when two projects were sanctioned, Gujarat AIIMS got 52 percent of the funds, while Telangana got only 11.4 percent, he questioned the central government. Instead of giving funds to Bibinagar AIIMS, which should be at par with Delhi AIIMS, the Union Minister blamed the Telangana government and made false allegations.
