A delegation of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) lead by its president and Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy visited the Osmania General Hospital (OGH) buildings, which are in a bad shape, on Saturday and blamed neglect of the hospital by the TRS government during the last six years for its present condition.
Accompanied by City Congress president and former MP M. Anjan Kumar Yadav, Youth Congress president M. Anil Kumar Yadav, party leaders Feroz Khan and others, he visited the old block of OGH constructed by the Nizam-VII. They also went round the open land behind the hospital complex.
Speaking during the visit, Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy said it was unfortunate that the State government had not focused on the upkeep of the hospital buildings and its development during the last six years as Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was little interested in public health. The government had not spent funds either on restoring or repairing the old block, which is now in a dilapidated condition. He suggested that the old building should be retained by restoring it appropriately since it was one of the heritage buildings in the city constructed during the Nizam era. He, however, demanded that the government take up construction of new buildings for the OGH in the six acres of vacant land available in the complex.
Alleging that the government apathy towards the OGH was ample indication of the KCR government’s (lack of ) commitment to the health of poor, Mr. Reddy said the TRS government had not failed just in the health sector but on all fronts including tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and the remarks being made by the High Court in the issue was ample proof of its gross neglect of public health in the wake of spread of the pandemic.
The TPCC president noted that the State government officials themselves had declared that COVID-19 was in the community spread stage in the State but the Cabinet colleagues of the Chief Minister were still saying that there was no community spread. It indicated total confusion within the government on handling the crisis.