The ESI Hospital, sanctioned to Visakhapatnam due to the efforts made by former MP and BJP leader Kambhampati Haribabu, is going to materialise soon, BJP leaders said here on Thursday.
The party’s Parliamentary district president M. Raveendra said they had exerted pressure on the YSRCP government to take up the issue with the Centre, which is learnt to have agreed to the proposal.
Mr. Raveendra said that the then Union Minister for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya had laid the foundation stone for the construction of a 300-bed ESI Hospital at Sheelanagar on April 11, 2016. Later, it was decided to construct a 500-bed hospital along with a medical college in view of the growing medical needs of North Andhra.
The failure of the previous Telugu Desam Party government to allocate the additional land required and its attempts to get the project shifted to Vijayawada caused an inordinate delay in the commencement of the project, the BJP leader alleged.
Subsequently, the YSR Congress government had also neglected it but the efforts of the BJP leaders from Visakhapatnam resulted in a 350-bed ESI hospital getting sanctioned to the city, Mr. Raveendra noted.
On February 22 this year, a decision was taken to construct a 350-bed hospital with an additional 50-bed SST wing in Visakhapatnam apart from construction of 128 staff quarters in an area of 8.72 acres at Sheelanagar in the city, he said.
Though the Centre had expressed its readiness to sanction a 500-bed hospital, the ‘dynastic parties’ in the State had failed to take advantage of it, he alleged, adding that the TDP leaders are now trying to find fault with the BJP government for the delay in an attempt cover up their own lapses.
