AP adviser slams TS for blocking ambulances

The adviser (Public Affairs) to the state government, Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, called it unfortunate on the part of Telangana government not to allow ambulances with Coronavirus-infected patients from parts of AP to reach Hyderabad for treatment, even as the Telangana High Court issued directions to the Telangana government earlier not to stop ambulances coming from other states at inter-state borders.

He told media persons here on Friday that it was time everyone worked with humanity and called upon the TS government to allow ambulances from AP into Telangana on humanitarian grounds, stating that the entire country was going through an unprecedented health crisis due to Coronavirus pandemic.

Reacting sharply to the TS government insistence on letters from hospitals and also passes for entering their state to get medical treatment, Reddy said that it was not possible to follow them, given the prevalence of an emergency situation.

Maintaining that people prefer to visit cities having better medical infrastructure, he said that AP patients were facing trouble to reach Hyderabad, while there were no restrictions on reaching Chennai and Bengaluru.

Referring to the post-bifurcation scenario, he slammed the former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for failing to develop a super specialty hospital in AP during his fiveyear regime and opined that if any such facility was developed, the people should not have faced such an ordeal as there were facing at present. He castigated Naidu for giving up AP rights on common capital Hyderabad up to 2024 by involving in cheap politics.

Reddy said that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was holding talks with the Telangana government to resolve the issue at the earliest and added that the state government had been making all efforts to contain the spread of the virus, provide better medical faculties, vaccinate all people and also deliver welfare schemes without any hindrance even during the peak Covid times.

He also said that the state government had spent `68,000 crore for welfare farmers in the last 23 months and even directly credited `89,000 crore into the accounts of beneficiaries under various schemes.