Stop selling public health to private players: Botsa

Tadepalli, November 27: Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Botsa Satyanarayanae slammed the coalition government’s move to privatize all government medical colleges, declaring that free healthcare and medical education for the poor are constitutional rights and no government has the authority to take them away. Speaking at the YSR Congress Party office after meeting Governor Abdul Nazir to seek an appointment for submitting public representations, Botsa said the YSRCP will fight until the privatization decision is withdrawn.
He announced the launch of a One Crore Signatures Campaign, collecting 50,000–70,000 signatures per constituency, with massive support from students, civil society groups, and intellectuals. 
These signatures will be submitted to the Governor along with a request for independent verification.
Botsa reminded that Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy initiated 17 government medical colleges, five completed and twelve under construction, to ensure district-level super-specialty healthcare. He accused Chandrababu Naidu of handing these public institutions to private operators out of spite, merely to stop YS Jagan from getting credit once they were completed. He termed the PPP model a “cover” to pass public assets to cronies, warning that this will keep poor students out of medical education and deny quality treatment to the underprivileged.
Pointing to the government’s failure to fund Arogyasri properly, releasing only Rs. 800 crore in 18 months instead of the required monthly Rs. 300 crore, Botsa said lakhs of poor patients are now being turned away by network hospitals. He accused the coalition of playing with people’s lives while pushing an insurance model that only benefits private companies.
He also condemned the government for dismantling public education and using schoolchildren in a mock assembly to claim that free tablets were used only for games. Calling it shameful, he said the coalition has destroyed Nadu-Nedu, abandoned farmers, ignored crashing crop prices, allowed crimes against women and children to rise, and failed to maintain hostels and schools.

Botsa urged citizens, intellectuals, and student communities across the state to come forward and sign against the privatization of medical colleges, stating that public health cannot be turned into a profit-making venture.