Former minister Vidadala Rajini has condemned the TDP alliance government’s decision on the privatisation of newly established medical colleges, calling it a ‘big scam’ involving large-scale corruption and conspiracy.
Speaking to the media in Guntur here on Wednesday, the former minister pointed out that the previous government, under former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, had strived to make medical education accessible to poor students by launching 17 medical colleges at once, with an investment of approximately Rs 8,500 crore. “He aimed to enhance medical education and super-specialty medical services in the State. Meanwhile, the TDP government is conspiring to privatise these medical colleges under the guise of ‘PPPP’s.”
Rajini pointed out that the first medical college in the State was set up in 1923, before independence, and only 11 government colleges were built in the next 100 years. Under the previous YSRCP government, work began on 17 new colleges at the same time, with five already operational by the 2023-24 academic year. She said that if Jagan had remained in power, five more colleges would have been opened in 2024-25, and the rest ready by 2025-26.
Rajini said that the newly opened medical colleges provided 750 MBBS seats last year, but this year, only 50 seats were available in Paderu College. She criticised the government’s refusal to accept 50 seats offered by the National Medical Commission (NMC) for Pulivendula College and questioned why there was so much hatred toward Pulivendula. She stated that political vendetta was not justified.
Rajini expressed concern that the government’s decision has crushed the hopes of students and their parents. She said the coalition government has been acting in a shameful manner out of the fear that YS Jagan might gain a good reputation.
She demanded an immediate rollback of the decision to privatise the new medical colleges, urging the government not to destroy the aspirations of poor students. She questioned why the leaders of the TDP alliance, who had promised to fill all medical seats under the convener quota and repeal the previous government’s orders within 100 days, are now remaining silent.
