Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will be virtually laying the foundation stones of 14 new medical colleges across the state as he completes two years since the YSRCP swept into power in the state. The government hopes that the commissioning of the new teaching medical colleges would ensure a continuous supply of workforce for the health machinery in the state. This will also help the state be prepared for any similar pandemics in the future. According to the government, this is a major achievement for the government considering only 10 medical colleges have been commissioned in the last 10 decades.
The government said that people in Andhra Pradesh often had to travel to neighbouring Hyderabad or Bengaluru for availing treatment. The 16 new colleges will come up in Pulivendula, Paderu, Machilipatnam, Vizianagaram, Anakapalli, Rajahmundry, Amalapuram, Palakollu, Eluru, Bapatla, Markapuram, Madanapalli, Penukonda, Nandyal and Adoni respectively. The new projects are estimated to cost the government exchequer a total of Rs. 7,880 crore. The government is also investing a total of over Rs 1600 crore in revamping the health infrastructure in the state.
As part of the efforts, the government is also trying to revamp hospitals in the state. The government has also decided to encourage the private sector by offering free land to anybody who is ready to build a super speciality hospital with an investment of Rs 100 crore in the next three years. District officials have been instructed to identify land and start the process keeping in mind a target of 80 speciality/super speciality hospitals to be constructed in the next three years.
Chief Minister Jagan said on Sunday that more than 85% of the households in Andhra Pradesh benefited from the schemes implemented by the YSRCP government during the last two years. He said out of 1.64 crore households, 1.41 crore households were benefited by at least one of the schemes of the government, while Rs 95,528 crore has been directly given to the people through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes and another Rs 37,197 crore indirectly through other schemes like YSR Arogyasri, Jagananna Thodu, Gorumudda, YSR Sampoorna Poshana etc, totalling to Rs 1.31 lakh crore.