CPI national secretary K. Ramakrishna demanded that the government immediately withdraw its proposal to run medical colleges under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model and ensure that all newly established government medical colleges remain under full government control.
In a statement on Sunday (December 28), Mr. Ramakrishna alleged that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was acting with undue haste and rigidity in attempting to privatise medical colleges under the guise of PPP. The move was being unanimously opposed by political parties, student and youth organisations,and intellectuals across Andhra Pradesh, he said.
Citing a recent article by former Union Health Secretary Sujatha Rao, Mr. Ramakrishna said the PPP model in medical education would not only inconvenience patients but also adversely affect students from poor and middle-class families. Land, buildings, infrastructure and other resources for the new medical colleges were created entirely with government funds, making it unjustifiable to hand them over to private players, he said, and termed it “immoral” that the government was even willing to pay staff salaries for two years while allowing private entities to collect fees from students.
The CPI leader accused the coalition government of effectively transferring public assets into private hands and questioned claims by the Health Minister regarding bidder interest in tenders. He warned that privatisation of education and healthcare would make them inaccessible to the common man and reiterated CPI’s strong opposition to the PPP policy in medical colleges.
Published – December 28, 2025 07:41 pm IST
