HYDERABAD: High drama ensued at the Gandhi Hospital when the members of the BRS fact-finding committee tried to enter the health facility on Monday.
BRS working president formed the committee to check the facilities and collect details of the recent maternal and infant deaths in the hospital.
The BRS cadre and leaders, led by MLAs Dr Sanjay Kalvakuntla and Dr Methuku Anand, as a part of the fact-finding team, tried to barge into the hospital. However, the police officials managed to thwart their attempts and took them into custody.
Later, the BRS members accused the Congress government of high-handedness and ruling the state with an iron fist. BRS working president KT Rama Rao, meanwhile, also criticised the government for stopping the the fact-fighting committee and said that it was trying to hide the inefficiencies in the government hospitals.
“This must be a first! Arresting members of a fact-finding committee? What exactly is this government scared of? The truth coming out? Their gross inefficiencies being exposed? If there’s nothing to hide, as I requested yesterday, let the BRS Fact-Finding Committee investigate!” Rama Rao posted on X.
“The report will only improve public health and expose the rot in the system. But your ego, Mr. Cheap Minister, is single-handedly destroying Telangana. Stop playing with people’s lives!” he added.
Health minister hits back
Responding to Rama Rao’s post, Health Minister Damodar Rajanarsimha pointed out that several “mishaps” were reported during the BRS regime.
“Many mishaps occurred in government hospitals during the BRS rule. In 2017, six infants died in Koti Maternity Hospital in three days and five infants in Niloufer Hospital in five days,” he posted on X.
“In 2022, a woman died during a family planning surgery and the dengue death toll rose to 100 in 2019,” he added.
The Health minister also issued a press statement stating that the state government was committed to upgrading the facilities at the Gandhi Hospital on par with corporate hospitals.
He also it was the failure of the previous government which led to the degradation of Gandhi and other government hospitals in the state.
Stating that Rs 45 crore pending bills show how the BRS government neglected the Gandhi Hospital, the minister said that the sinister political moves of the BRS would not dampen the determination of the Congress government to transform the health sector in the state.
“The failure of 10-year governance of the BRS is clearly visible in the state as the health department is crumbling under problems of unfilled vacancies and incomplete infrastructure as well as shortage of faculty in 25 new medical colleges,” he said.