HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the inordinate delay in the construction of a new building for Osmania General Hospital (OGH) in Hyderabad. The court, taking up a petition on the issue, asked the government how many more years it would need to construct the building. It wanted the government to make up its mind within six weeks on whether or not it would construct a new building.
The bench grilled the government on what its stand was. It sought to know whether the government wanted to pull down the entire building and construct a new one or just build a few blocks and be done with it. When Telangana advocate-general (AG) BS Prasad apprised the court that the government was examining the issue from all angles, the court interjected, asking whether it could build new blocks without touching the existing heritage building. When the AG sought more time, the bench remarked that how many more years the government would need to arrive at a decision.
The bench also questioned as to why the government had not submitted a site plan and a Google Maps plan of the existing hospital. The bench asked why it should not initiate contempt proceedings against the Principal Secretary of the Medical and Health Department for not making these submissions. Responding to this, the AG told the court that the Principal Secretary was busy taking up measures to combat Covid-19.
The Telangana government has been hanging fire over the construction of a new building for OGH for the last six years. While taking up petitions filed on the issue, the court has expressed annoyance over the project remaining a non-starter.