Healthcare dream comes true for Adivasis

Mahabubabad: Anyone who visited Mahabubabad aka Manukota which boasted a rugged look before 2016 Dasara is certain to be flabbergasted now. Ever since it was carved out as a new district splitting from erstwhile Warangal, Manukota witnessed a sea of change. Thanks to the State Government's decentralisation idea that transformed the fate of backward areas. No one in his wildest dream would have imagined that one day Manukota would have a medical college. But that dream was fulfilled on Tuesday when the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao inaugurated eight medical colleges, including the one at Manukota, virtually from Hyderabad. It took just around six months for the authorities to ready the G+2 pre-engineered building (PEB) on 25 acres to ensure the start of classes from this academic year. It may be mentioned here that the government had earmarked Rs 550 crore for the medical college. The existing 100-bed area hospital has been upgraded to teaching hospital enhancing the number of beds to 330, and the construction is ongoing. According to information, the government had appointed nine professors, 14 assistant professors and seven associate professors, besides non-teaching staff. It's learnt that the medical college requires around 200 staff including teaching and non-teaching posts. Although the medical college has a sanctioned strength of 150 students into the MBBS first year, so far 92 seats have been filled and the rest of the seats will be filled during the next phase of counseling, medical college principal Dr Jatoth Venkateshwarlu said. The principal said that everything is ready for the classes.

"It's going to be a massive help for the people in Mahabubabad, a predominantly forested tribal district. Up to now, the needy people used to run to Warangal or Hyderabad for better healthcare. With the advent of the medical college, the healthcare needs of the locals, especially the Adivasis will be addressed properly," Dr. V Gurunadha Rao, a government teacher, told The Hans India. On the other hand, the new medical college in Mahabubabad is expected to reduce the workload of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital which has been a lifeline of north Telangana. Incidentally, this is the second State-run medical college in the erstwhile Warangal district after Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal. Although the government has sanctioned medical colleges for Bhupalpally and Jangaon, they are still in the construction stage.