Governor should stop bluster, fight for Telangana’s tribal varsity, coach factory: Harish Rao

HYDERABAD: Telangana Minister for Finance and Health and Medical Education T Harish Rao on Sunday slammed the Centre for its blatant campaign of bluster and deception over the continued discrimination against the state in the allocation of medical colleges. The Union Government’s unending bias against Telangana in this regard came in for a sharp debate once again with Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan stirring the hornet’s nest once again with a controversial tweet.

Even as the Governor was taken to task on social media for brazenly peddling lies while skirting the Centre’s step-motherly treatment, contradictory statements by a few Central ministers evoked angry reactions from the Telangana Government and the civil society. Deciding to set the record straight and call the Centre’s bluff, Harish Rao came up with a series of tweets.

Almost as if to expose the hypocrisy of the Governor in maligning the KCR government while keeping mum on the injustice meted out to the State, Harish Rao wondered why no voices were raised to speak against the raw deal being given to Telangana. He advised the Raj Bhavan to instead ‘reorient its focus’ and push the Centre for the Tribal University and Railway Coach Factory in Telangana, as promised in 2014.

In his first tweet, the Health Minister sought to expose the Centre’s double standards towards Telangana in the sanctioning of the medical colleges.

“FACT is Gross injustice meted out to Telangana in sanctioning of Medical Colleges, despite repeated pleas from state govt to Centre. Of 157 medical colleges approved by centre, TS got 0. Union Govt discriminated & deceived TS in all three phases of allotment of Colleges,” the Minister tweeted.

He tagged a news video clip of the then Union Health Minister Harshavardhan promising the Centre’s support for the new medical colleges in Telangana. Ironically, Etela Rajender, who is currently in the BJP, was the Telangana Health Minister and part of the delegation that met Harshavardhan.

In the next, Harish Rao castigated the Union ministers for creating a climate of confusion with their contradictory statements on the medical colleges row.

“What's worse is Union ministers' contrasting statements on medical colleges. One said TS didn't make any request, other said Govt wanted colleges in Khammam & Karimnagar.

By stating Centre didn't give a nod bcos private colleges are already set up, Who is misleading people?,” the tweet read. Hitting the bullseye, Harish Rao’s poser was candid and needed no more elaboration.

To expose the BJP’s gamble even further, he attached a video clip of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unabashedly acknowledging that medical colleges in Telangana were not sanctioned.

The Telangana Health Minister followed it up with another crisp but pointed explanation on how the Telangana Government led by K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) defied all odds and went on to build 12 more medical colleges with the state’s own funds.

“CM KCR Garu setup 12 medical clgs with state's own funds in tune to vision of 1 medical clg in each dist. TS tops in country with 19 MBBS seats per lakh population?

Instead of hurling abuses, Centre & governor shud appreciate TS govt for opening 8 colleges in a single day,” he tweeted.

In what could be a slap in the face for the Centre, Harish Rao also decried the discrimination meted out to Telangana even in the sanction of allocated funds for the development of AIIMS in Bibinagar. He lamented that the Centre had only released Rs 156 crores for this facility instead of Rs 1365 crores, as sanctioned in 2018. He also wanted to know how AIIMS, Gujarat, located in the home state of both the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, got 52 percent of funds while it was pegged at only 11.4 percent for Telangana even though both were sanctioned in 2018. He attached a copy of a written reply from the Union Health Ministry in response to an RTI query on the existing AIIMS facilities across the country and the funds released for them as against the allocated figure.

Finally, he criticised the Telangana Governor for pursuing a policy of hypocrisy in attacking the KCR Government unreasonably and shielding the Centre and its follies from being exposed.

“Why no one voices about injustice meted to TS? Why not find fault with Centre in the interest of Telangana?

It would be a great help to people of TS, if Raj Bhavan reorients its focus & pushes GoI for Tribal University and Rail Coach factory, as promised in APRA2014,” his tweet read.