Finally, district medical office starts functioning in Tirupati

Tirupati: The imbroglio over setting up district medical and health office in Tirupati post-bifurcation of district finally ended on Sunday. Even after the new district came into existence on April 4, the district medical and health department has not opened its office in Tirupati though several other departments have come up well before that date and functioning from here. Most departments were provided accommodation at the Collectorate itself as it is a huge complex. Following the request of DM&HO, the Collector of erstwhile Chittoor district M Hari Narayanan has issued orders allotting the vacant old maternity hospital building to DM&HO office and asked the superintendent of maternity hospital to hand over the same. Accordingly, it was handed over to the DM&HO and they erected signboards before it. By the next day, the boards were allegedly removed by Ruia hospital authorities. The DM&HO officials have argued that the building was vacant as it was already shifted to the new premises. It was being used for Covid testing for the past two years and now even that is not there. However, it was learnt that the Ruia hospital authorities have maintained that unless they get orders from the Director of Medical Education (DME), they cannot give the building for any other purpose. It became a matter of concern as the district medical and health office and the Ruia hospital have been involved in an unhealthy fight over the office building.

Meanwhile, the government has allotted the DM&HO Chittoor to Tirupati district and Additional DM&HO as the in-charge of Chittoor district. Accordingly, the present DM&HO Dr U Sreehari took up the matter to the notice of concerned higher officials and with their intervention, finally, the building was handed over again to the department office.

Following this, the office was formally inaugurated by performing puja on Sunday morning and the DM&HO started functioning from there. Dr Sreehari told The Hans India that staff were already allocated to Tirupati district and they have no office to work from. With the opening of the new office, the works will resume without any delay.