Jagan complains to Governor against PPP model for medical colleges

A delegation of YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) led by its president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy lodged a complaint with Governor S. Abdul Nazeer against the PPP model of construction of medical colleges, maintaining that its intention was to privatise the colleges and that it would be detrimental to medical education in the State. 

Addressing media persons later, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said he submitted a report to the Governor on the one crore signature campaign organised by the YSRCP against the government’s attempts to ‘’privatise the medical colleges under the garb of PPP’’ and that the matter would be challenged in the courts, to which the papers containing 1,04,11,136 signatures would be submitted if required to convey the gravity of the situation. 

He said the YSRCP would not keep quiet if the government does not give up its plan to privatise the colleges, and that completion of the construction of the colleges which came to a pause in 2024, would require ₹5,000 crore and the government appeared to be reluctant to spend it from its ₹2 lakh crore budget. 

The government owed an explanation for this, he said, while appealing for a rethink on the decision. Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy pointed out that during the YSRCP regime, a medical college was sanctioned for every district to make free super – specialty services accessible to the people through the teaching hospitals.

Completing the 17 medical colleges would bring additional seats within the reach of the students. He insisted that under the PPP model, lands, buildings and employees would be under the government control, but management of the colleges would be entrusted to private entities to whom the profits would go. 

Signature campaign

Addressing a meeting of YSRCP leaders earlier in the day after flagging off vehicles (at his residence in Tadepalli) carrying papers containing the one crore-plus signatures to the Lok Bhavan in Vijayawada, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy vowed to cancel the PPP model when the YSRCP returns to power, calling it a big scam. 

He recalled that former CM N. Janardhan Reddy had to step down for giving permission to private medical colleges and hoped that Mr. Naidu would understand the rationale behind keeping schools and hospitals with the governments since independence, which was to ensure that the services were affordable and reached all those in need.