Telangana health wing is suffering from chronic ailments: Congress

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Congress has alleged that the Health and Family Welfare department itself is plagued with chronic ailments under the rule of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. In its second ‘chargesheet’ against the BRS government that was released on Saturday as part of its Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan, the main Opposition party in the State focused on the alleged failed promises and the situation of State-run hospitals.

AICC Programmes Implementation Committee chairman Alleti Maheshwar Reddy, along with his colleagues K Madan Mohan Rao and Palvai Sravanthi released the ‘chargesheet’ with 16 points. The chargesheet accuses the government of a shortage of funds, staff and medicine even after the pandemic, which claimed lakhs of lives worldwide.

Taking a dig at the chief minister, Maheshwar Reddy said that while a doctor is optimally required for every 1,000 population, Telangana doesn’t have a doctor for even 2 lakh people. He also said that the State government marked only 4.4% of its Budget allocations to the health sector, against the national guidelines of 8%.

Maheshwar Reddy said that the TRS (now BRS) had promised to build 30-bed hospitals at the mandal level and 100-bed hospitals at the Assembly constituency level and super speciality hospitals at the district level, but this promise remains unkept till date.

“This (BRS) government revoked the rule that doctors should stay locally, and it resulted in the non-availability of doctors in rural areas. Moreover, shortage of medicine continued to haunt the health centres,” Maheshwar Reddy said. He said that the health cards issued to the poor and journalists are non-functional.