Know Your MLA: Public welfare is his cup of tea

Karimnagar: Dr Makunuru Sanjay Kumar, MLA of Jagtial constituency won for a second term with a majority of over 15,000 votes. He was born in Anthargam village in Jagtial district. He studied MBBS at Siddartha Medical College, Vijayawada under Acharya Nagarjuna University in 1989. Later, he did his M.S. in Ophthalmology from JJM Medical College, Davanagiri in Karnataka under the Kuvempu University in 1992.

Dr Sanjay Kumar as an ophthalmologist is constantly connecting with the people through voluntary service in the region for three decades. He has been active in charity work since the beginning, especially serving as an ophthalmologist. Many programmes have been undertaken beyond the constituency and district limits. Along with local doctors and other ophthalmologists, he organised camps and provided free medical services. He organised ophthalmology camps in all government schools in Jagtial division, examined the children and provided free medicines and glasses. Eye operations are also done free of charge.

So far, Dr Sanjay Kumar has performed 70,000 surgeries, out of which thousands of surgeries have been done for free. Even though he joined politics ten years ago, he continues to perform eye surgeries for free every day and moving ahead with the goal of doing a thousand surgeries for free every year.

Although he contested as an MLA candidate in 2014, he lost. He assured the people stating, 'I am here'. In the matter of development and welfare, every minute was dealt with carefully. Every issue was brought to the attention of the government and resolved. In the 2018 elections, he won against the Congress candidate Jeevan Reddy with a majority of over 60,000 votes and in the 2023 elections with a majority of over 15,000 votes. From the beginning, he focused on each mandal by getting closer to the people of the constituency including all communities sharing their hardships and pleasures.

Development and welfare schemes helped Sanjay Kumar's second victory. He changed the contours of the constituency and it decided his victory. Declaring Jagtial as the district headquarters, spending about Rs 150 crore in Dharur camp, building a collectorate and police office, granting a medical college to the district, setting up a 650-bed hospital in addition to it, and starting the construction of a hospital and college with Rs 511 crores contributed to the victory. Apart from these, complete distribution of 4,520 double bedroom houses in Jagtial after Hyderabad at a cost of Rs 300 crore, development of Jagtial town with Rs 50 crore, building internal roads and bridges in mandals, and Birpur mandal's Rollavagu has been modernised at a cost of Rs135 crore and provided with irrigation water.

As many as 62,000 people in the constituency are receiving pensions every month. Along with this, many minority and general residential colleges and schools have been established across the constituency. The beautification of 64 government schools through 'Mana Ooru-Mana Badi' and 'Mana Basti - Mana Badi' played a vital role in Sanjay Kumar's victory. And the development works done in rural progress and urban progress also contributed. Dr Sanjay Kumar, who always thinks about the people, has recently joined the Congress party for the development of the constituency.