PPP push for Medical Colleges is a distortion of Parliamentary Panel’s recommendations

Srikakulam, Dec 14: Former Minister and YSRCP Doctors’ Wing State President Dr. Sidiri Appala Raju strongly criticised what he called motivated and misleading narratives by sections of the yellow media claiming that Public–Private Partnership (PPP) is the best model for medical colleges. Addressing the media at the YSRCP office in Srikakulam, he clarified that the Parliamentary Standing Committee never recommended handing over existing government medical colleges to private entities, and that its observations are being deliberately distorted to justify privatisation.

Dr. Sidiri stated that the committee merely suggested encouraging private participation through incentives and scholarships to expand medical education capacity, and at best to explore PPP for new initiatives, never to privatise already constructed government medical colleges. If that were the intent, he asked, would institutions like AIIMS, JIPMER or IITs also be handed over to private players? He warned that increased private control would burden the poor, recalling how private dominance in healthcare would have proved disastrous during crises like COVID-19.

He accused the Chandrababu Naidu government of pushing a flawed PPP model that transfers public assets, land, buildings, hospitals and infrastructure, to private parties, while the government even agrees to pay staff salaries for two years, allowing profits to be privatised and losses socialised. This, he said, is not infrastructure creation but a betrayal of public interest and an assault on the dreams of poor students.

Dr. Sidiri pointed out the hypocrisy of claiming lack of funds for medical colleges while the government borrows thousands of crores for Amaravati projects, Godavari Pushkarams, and extremely costly road works, noting that a single medical college could be completed with the cost of just a few kilometres of such roads. He reminded that funding avenues like NABARD were already secured during Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s tenure, making fresh borrowing unnecessary, and alleged that privatisation is being driven solely to deny credit to the former Chief Minister and benefit private interests and benamis.

Highlighting the scale of the issue, he said land spanning about 257 acres has been acquired for 10 medical colleges, now proposed to be handed over to private players, while PG seats and self-financing quotas with exorbitant fees have already been allotted to private managements. He also flagged the state’s alarming fiscal trajectory, noting that despite claiming empty coffers, the government has incurred Rs. 2.66 lakh crore debt in just 18 months, pushing Andhra Pradesh towards financial distress.

Dr. Sidiri reiterated that YSRCP’s statewide public movement against the privatisation of 10 medical colleges has received overwhelming support, with over one crore signatures collected through a democratic process. District-level rallies will be held on December 15, after which the signatures will be transported to Vijayawada and formally submitted to Governor Abdul Nazeer on December 18 by former Chief Minister and YSRCP President Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, he announced.