Hyderabad: Congress senior leader and former Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashehar Rao‘s inability to think beyond elections was causing huge damage to Telangana State.
“KCR only wants to win elections and do nothing for the people. While politics, in a democracy, stands for serving the people, KCR apparently follows a new definition. He always remains in election mode and just wants to win all polls at any cost.
This selfish approach has badly hit the process of development and welfare of common people,” he said in a statement on Wednesday .
Shabbir Ali pointed out that within hours after release of notification for Huzurnagar Assembly bye-elections, KCR held a review meeting, appointed an in-charge and directed all ministers, legislators and party leaders to focus on winning the seat.
Similar activism was not visible when lakhs of people were affected with viral diseases. The Chief Minister had no time to hold a review meeting despite the fact that nearly 55 lakh people got affected with viral infections in the last 2-3 months. He did not even react when several people, including children, died of Dengue, he said.
The Congress leader said KCR should have conducted a comprehensive meeting to review health situation in Telangana State. However, he said public health and education appears to be the least priorities of TRS Government.
“While the Chief Minister is not holding any review meetings, Health Minister Etala Rajender was touring the government hospitals without an agenda. His visits are only aimed at blocking some media space which otherwise could have been used to highlight the deteriorating conditions of health sector,” he said.
Shabbir Ali said that during the review meeting held at Kothi Women’s College, the Health Minister was unable to give any reply to the issues raised by medical professionals. “Despite an alarming health situation, there is no diagnostic lab that works on 24×7 basis.
There is no MRI facility in Niloufer Hospital. The gloves used by doctors are over 10 years old. Osmania, Gandhi and Fever Hospitals lack required medical equipment and disposables,” he said while adding that the Health Minister was unable to give specific assurance on when these lapses would be rectified.
He said that the cut in health budget by over 60% was unprecedented and no State in the country has ever resorted to such an extreme step of playing with the lives of common people.
“While Health Minister is silent on lack of required funds for his department, Chief Minister had no guts to make a mention of Dengue deaths or viral diseases in his speeches. They are trying to cover up failures by making political statements,” he said.
Shabbir Ali said that the way Chief Minister was planning to contest by-elections or gear up his party for municipal elections, he should have activated his entire team to deal with the health crisis. “For Congress party, politics is a mean to serve people. But for KCR and TRS, politics begins and ends at elections,” he said. (INN)