Health Minister said PM Modi has sanctioned the highest number of medical colleges "without partiality".
After Telangana Minister K T Rama Rao alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not sanctioned any medical college for the state, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday said no formal proposal was ever received from the state for setting up new medical colleges there.
Minister for IT and Industries K T Rama Rao, who is Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's son, in a series of tweets on Sunday said the chief minister has sanctioned 16 new medical colleges and 13 more are in the pipeline.
"Now, let me tell you how many medical colleges our PM Modi Ji sanctioned to Telangana -- zero," the TRS leader said.
In response, Mr Mandaviya on Monday said in a tweet, "How many proposals for medical colleges have been sent by your Telangana State Government? 'Zero'." He further said Prime Minister Modi has sanctioned the highest number of government medical colleges in the shortest time, "without partiality, to those states who made proposals".
Reacting to Mr Mandaviya's tweet, KTR posted two communications from the former Union health ministers to the state government in 2015 and 2019.
"Wish you had a review before you chose to respond. Attached are responses of your predecessors to the requests from Telangana Health Ministers from 2015 and 2019." "Telangana Govt has consistently requested for medical colleges but fact is your Govt delivered ZERO," he said.
Further responding to KTR, Mr Mandaviya posted a previous communication by his predecessor Harsh Vardhan in August 2019 to Telangana asking it to send a detailed project report on the state government's request for upgradation of existing district hospitals into medical colleges in two districts of Telangana as per the guidelines for consideration.
He also attached a reply given in Parliament in December 2021.
"With all due respect, kindly read the 3rd para of the letter of my predecessor, and the reply recently given in the Parliament. Kindly try to understand that Centre has always requested and guided Telangana state to send a formal proposal with DPR as per scheme requirements," he said.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare administers a centrally sponsored scheme for establishment of new medical colleges attached with existing district/referral hospitals.
"Under Phase III of this scheme, all States/UTs were requested to submit proposals for consideration in the Ministry. However, no proposal has been received from Telangana State for establishment of new medical college under this scheme. Further, all 75 medical colleges approved under Phase-III of this scheme have already been allocated," the government said in reply to a question in Parliament.
Mr Mandaviya in a separate tweet underlined that there is a difference between sending a simple letter and a formal proposal according to the scheme's requirements.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)