Ponnam Prabhakar, Rasamayi Balakishan Cross Swords

Former MP and Congress leader Ponnam Prabhakar and Manakonduru TRS MLA Rasamayi Balakishan entered a heated argument at Karimnagar on Thursday in the presence of Health Minister Laxma Reddy.

Prabhakar submitted a memorandum to Reddy urging him to help set up a medical college in Karimnagar. Prabhakar, along with other Congress leaders, took the minister aside separately and showed him a video which showed Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao promising the people such a college during his visit to Karimnagar in 2014, and complained to the minister that the Chief Minister was not focusing on delivering on his promise.

He said that the Chief Minister had allocated Rs. 700 crores to Siddipet and granted it a medical college, and was clearly discriminating against Karimnagar.

Balakishan expressed displeasure at Prabhakar's complaints, and an argument started between the two. The police took Balakishan away to avoid any further deterioration in the situation. Later, the Congress leaders raised slogans against the TRS leaders, and Prabhakar warned the state government that he would go on a fast-unto-death if the government failed to set up a medical college in Karimnagar.

Speaking to the media later, Laxma Reddy said that the state government was setting up medical colleges one by one wherever there were no medical colleges in the state. He promised that the government would set up a medical college and a super speciality hospital in Karimnagar soon.

He also promised that an ICU would be set up in the Karimnagar Government Hospital. In addition, he announced that the government would set up dialysis centres at 39 places across the state, provide MRI scan facilities across the state.