Jagan terms privatisation of medical colleges in Andhra ‘mother of all scams’

Amaravati: YSR Congress Party president and former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday termed the alleged privatisation of medical colleges in Andhra Pradesh as “the mother of all scams”.

He said that over one crore people have opposed the move and expressed solidarity with the party, and made it clear that the protests would continue till the government takes back the decision, which also adversely affects public health.

Jagan Mohan Reddy was addressing YSRCP leaders, after flagging off the vans carrying the signature papers and ahead of meeting Governor S. Abdul Nazeer to apprise him of the ‘fraud’.

He said 1,04,11,146 people have signed the papers during ‘racha banda’ and other programmes held across the state against the privatisation. The people have also given their phone numbers, which adds to the authenticity of the campaign.

“We will meet the Governor, after paying homage to B.R. Ambedkar at the Smrithi Vanam, and apprise him of how quality medical care and medical education will be snatched away from the poor with the privatisation and how the audacity of the Chandrababu government came to the fore by agreeing to pay salaries to private medical colleges from the state exchequer,” he said.

The campaign is a culmination of “racha banda” meetings and rallies at various levels after announcing the programme in October and visiting the Narsipatnam medical college, he said.

“History tells us that former Chief Minister N. Janardhan Reddy had to resign after allotting a single medical college to the private sector, but here Chandrababu has been giving medical colleges left, right and centre to private players for kickbacks,” he said, calling this the mother of all scams.

The former CM said that they will expose the scam at all available avenues and will also explore legal options and continue to protest at all levels seeking a rollback of the privatisation move by the Chandrababu government.

He lauded the cadre for making the campaign a grand success and flayed Chandrababu Naidu for weakening the institutions, more so the medical and education sectors.

“The government should run hospitals, schools and RTC buses to keep private players and their exploitation away, but Chandrababu is doing the opposite, which shows his priorities. We have done our best to keep the three sectors in government and will fight it out till the privatisation decision is taken back, failing which, when we assume office, the private players will face serious consequences,” he warned.

Ridiculing Chandrababu Naidu’s ire over the Collectors for their performance, he said it was his own graph that is falling drastically, and he has been shifting the blame to administrators.

IANS