Finance Minister T Harish Rao has the uncanny sense of being in places where help’s needed the most. As COVID-19 spreads across the State, Harish is doing his all to reach out to citizens in crisis. By 6.30 am every day, Harish sets out to any place where there’s a problem; he personally sees to it that it’s solved. He is everywhere, whether in Medak, Sangareddy, Siddpet or Zaheerabad, which constitute the erstwhile Medak district, as if by magic.
When a family member of a COVID patient, who was lodged in a quarantine centre at Sanareddy, sent an SMS to him claiming the food served in the centre wasn’t palatable, Harish rushed to the spot and pulled up the officials. Later, he spoke to the COVID-suspect over the phone and enquired about his health and the services being rendered to him.
Further, when person in Ram a c h a n - drapuram, who was undergoing treatment at a private hospital, tested positive for the virus, the Minister asked the officials to shift him to Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad. He then went to the patient’s house and met his son, risking his own life. Standing just a metre away from him, Harish tried to instil hope and confidence in him. “Don’t lose your heart. Your father will be in safe hands. He will be free of COVID soon,” he comforted him. Subsequently, the son too tested positive and he too was sent to Gandhi Hospital.
The Minister spends a considerable amount of time reaching out to the residents of Siddpet, his home constituency. He has distributed sanitisers to all the 26,000 households in the town. He is feeding about 300 people every day in Sidipet. Harish has been taking personal care to ensure that there is no disruption in the supply of essential commodities in the villages. “One has to be healthy to beat COVID,” the Minister says.