The Andhra Pradesh Governor on Monday, October 31 gave his stamp of approval and the state government has issued an order with regard to renaming NTR University of Health Sciences to Dr YSR University of Health Sciences. Principal Secretary Krishnababu issued the orders with approval of the Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan, which will come into effect immediately.
Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy decided to rename NTR UHS after his own father, the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and introduced a bill in the legislative assembly on September 21. Justifying the renaming of the Health University, CM Jagan said that it was a carefully deliberated move to give due credit to YSR and that he has no disrespect towards NTR. He stated that it was to give due credit to his father who was a medical practitioner and introduced the medical insurance scheme Arogyasri and 108,104 ambulance services in the state.
The move drew widespread criticism from the opposition and they demanded a rollback of the decision. Security was deployed in large numbers around the university and opposition leaders gathered at the university entrance and staged a protest raising slogans. Tammineni Sitaram, the speaker of the House suspended the protesting leaders as the situation grew worse. The bill was passed in the assembly the same day.
Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao popularly known as NTR was the founder of the Telugu Desam Party and promoted medical education by forming a separate health university. After his death, his son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu became the Chief Minister of the state in 1989 and named the university after him. Naidu questioned how the university could be renamed after YSR when it was NTR who founded the university and gave recommendation to build new institutes instead.
Telugu actor Junior NTR, who is the grandson of NT Rama Rao also waded into the controversy and said that renaming the university would neither raise the stature of former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy nor lower the stature of NTR.