Plea in Andhra Pradesh HC claims State misled court on setting up medical college at Nandyal

Nandyal: During the hearing of a plea that claimed the State had wrongly acquired 50 acres of land for setting up a medical college at Nandyal, the Rayalaseema Saguneeti Sadhana Samithi recently claimed that the State had misled the Andhra Pradesh High Court regarding the deadline for submitting application to the National Medical Commission (NMC) as well.

As per the Samithi, the State counsel had informed the court that the deadline for submitting the application for constituting a medical college was July 15, 2022 and the date for building inspection was scheduled in December 2022.

However, NMC in its official website has clearly mentioned that the date for submitting the application commenced on July 21 and it would continue up until August 10, 2022.

Such information were revealed during the hearing of the plea filed by the Samithi, which claimed that the State wrongly acquired the Samithi's land by destroying the Regional Agricultural Research Station, which had been catering to the farmers of the region for almost a century.

Meanwhile, the district administration informed the media about the recent development that the foundation stone for the institute had been laid on Friday on the RARS land.

Also Read: 5 new medical colleges with 150 MBBS seats each to come up in Andhra Pradesh, MBBS Admission from next academic year

Disappointed with the State Government, Samithi president Bojja Dasaratharami Reddy told The Hindu, "The samithi is disappointed with the conduct of the State's counsel in obtaining a conditional order from the court during the absence of the petitioner's counsel due to COVID-19."

"The samithi believes that the Government of Andhra Pradesh has actually not applied for the establishment of a medical college at Nandyal until it was pointed out by its counsel in the court during the course of hearing of the case," he added.

However, he clarified that the Samithi was not opposed to the State's decision of setting up a medical college in Nandyal and mentioned, "The State government is attempting to misappropriate the RARS land under the guise of setting up a medical college despite availability of alternative land extent."

Nandyal is one of the new medical colleges that the State is planning to build. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Andhra Pradesh Government was setting up 16 new medical colleges at a total cost of Rs 7,880 crore. In this regard, the State also initiated measures to fill more than 40,000 posts in government hospitals. These new medical colleges will come up at Paderu, Vizianagaram, Anakapalli, Rajahmundry, Palakollu, Amalapuram, Eluru, Machilipatnam, Bapatla, Markapuram, Piduguralla, Madanapalli, Pulivendula, Penukonda, Adoni and Nandyal.

Among this, the medical college at Eluru, Vizianagaram, Rajamahendravaram, Nandyal and Machilipatnam districts of the State are expected to commence the MBBS admissions in 150 MBBS seats each from the next academic year 2023-24. Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences has already given its nod in this regard.

Also Read: Cabinet approves Rs 7, 880 crore for 16 New medical colleges in Andhra Pradesh