AMARAVATI: The Dr NTR University of Health will now be known as Dr YSR University of Health, as per a bill that the Andhra Pradesh State Legislative Assembly approved on Wednesday, September 21. The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government passed the Act against the Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) complaints and objections.
In the absence of the TDP members who had earlier been suspended from the House by Speaker Tammineni Seetharam for obstructing the proceedings in opposition to the government's action, the Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences (Amendment) Bill 2022 was passed overwhelmingly. The Bill was introduced by Minister of Medicine and Health Vidadala Rajini, and following discussion, it was approved.
The government's decision to rechristen the university was backed by Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. He made it obvious that he has the utmost regard for NTR when he told the House that the choice was reached after careful consideration of the proposal. He declared, "I revere NTR more than Chandrababu Naidu," pointing out that his government named a district after NTR despite no one having asked for it.
The chief minister said, the government didn't move in this direction until he was sure that renaming the university was the right course to take. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) was not only a physician and politician; he was also a great humanitarian who understood the struggles of the poor and offered the best healthcare facilities to them without charge, according to Jagan Mohan Reddy, who gave an explanation of the reasons for renaming the university. The late YSR is recognised with bringing public health services like 104 and 108 for people, as well as with implementing ground-breaking programmes like Arogyasri, the chief minister recalled. He said that while the TDP was in power, not a single medical college was founded, while as many as 28 were started under the YSR and Y S Jagan regimes.
The former chief minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy made significant efforts to advance the medical and health sector, the health minister recalled. She said that YSR was the one who first proposed the Arogyasri scheme, which offered the underprivileged free healthcare.
R. K. Roja, the minister of tourism, praised the administration for altering the university's name. The Health University, which was founded in 1986 and is named after N. T. Rama Rao, a former chief minister and founder of the TDP, was established in his honour in 1998. The university has been renamed after YSR, the father of Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, as a result of the Bill's passage.
The TDP's legislators in both houses of the State Legislature reacted angrily to the decision, stalling the proceedings. Party officials and members took to the streets as well.
Due to their interference with the proceedings, the TDP members were all suspended from the Assembly. Marshals forcefully hauled them out of the House on the Speaker Tammineni Seetharam's instructions. N. Chandrababu Naidu, the leader of the TDP and a former chief minister, criticised the Jagan Mohan Reddy administration.
Naidu questioned the decision to rename the 1986-founded NTR Health University. Naidu questioned Jagan Mohan Reddy, "How can you rename the university after your father when NTR founded it? "
To advance medical education in the newly united Andhra Pradesh, the then-chief minister NTR established a separate health university in 1986. When NTR passed away, then-chief minister Chandrababu Naidu gave the university his name.
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