The decision of Telangana Government to shift Chest Hospital to Vikarabad, 70-km away from the city to build a new State Secretariat in its place is facing flak from all quarters, including the heritage activists. Further intensifying the resistance, senior BJP leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy on Wednesday filed a Public Interest litigation in Hyderabad High Court seeking intervention to restrain the Government from shifting the hospital.
Challenging Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s decision, Janardhan Reddy said that it would put the poor patients at a great disadvantage. “How poor patients can go to a hospital 70-kms-away from Hyderabad in case of emergencyIJ” he asked. The attitude of the Government is frightening, he said describing the decision as ‘anti-people’.
“The KCR Government is not caring for the rules and regulations against pulling down the heritage structures,” he said pointing out that the present building of Chest Hospital at Erragadda was a historic building from Nizam era. “People should wake up against anti-poor decisions and measures of the Telangana Government,” Reddy said.
Earlier, Congress MP G Sukhender Reddy also raised similar objections to the move. “Instead of shifting the Chest Hospital out of the city, the Government should upgrade it to the level of a general hospital so the people of that areacan benefit from it,” he said.