The Rayalaseema Saguneeti Sadhana Samithi, which filed a writ petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court against acquisition of 50 acres belonging to the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS) at Nandyal for setting up a medical college, has accused the State government of misleading the court with regard to the time period within which application should be submitted to the National Medical Commission (NMC).
Samithi president Bojja Dasaratharami Reddy told The Hindu that the State’s counsel had informed the court that the deadline for submitting the application for establishing a medical college was July 15, 2022, with building inspection being scheduled for December 2022.
However, as per the NMC’s official website, the date for submitting the application had commenced on July 21 and would end on August 10, 2022.
While this was so, the district administration informed the media that the foundation stone was laid on Friday for the medical college on the RARS land.
“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,” he said.
“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.
While the samithi was not opposed to the establishment of a medical college in Nandyal, it was against destruction of the Regional Agricultural Research Station, which had been serving the farmers of the region for the past 100 years, Mr. Dasaratharami Reddy said.
“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,” he alleged.
The samithi would expose the government in the court during the hearing scheduled for next month, Mr. Dasaratharami Reddy said, and added that “the samithi is confident of saving both the medical college and the RARS and prevent the lopsided development of the promising new district.”
