Naidu seeks intervention of Governor Biswabusan on name change issue

Vijayawada: TDP national president and Leader of Opposition in Assembly N Chandrababu Naidu met Governor Biswabusan Harichandan at Rajbhavan here on Thursday and requested him to intervene and stop the unconstitutional proposal to change the name of Dr NTR University of Health Sciences.

In a memorandum submitted to the Governor, the former chief minister said that the bill to change the name of NTR university was passed in the AP Legislative Assembly when the opposition is not in the House and the Cabinet approval was taken during dark hours.

Naidu said that the government's proposal to change the name of NTR university is not only regressive but also vindictive in nature. He said that NT Rama Rao conceived the idea of health university, the first-of-its-kind in the country in 1986 in order to bring all the medical colleges under one affiliation. Later, in 1998 the university was renamed as Dr NTR University of Health Sciences and celebrated silver jubilee in 2011. He said that the paranoid mindset of the YSRCP government is evident with changing the name of NTR university while Telugu people across the world are celebrating 100th birth anniversary of NTR. Naidu described the bill to rename NTR university as 'black bill'.

Speaking to media outside Raj Bhavan later, Chandrababu Naidu said the TDP had made an appeal to the Governor to reject the bill. Terming the legislation 'illegitimate', he said that the bill is highly unethical and irrelevant and thus they made an appeal to the Governor, who is the Chancellor of the university, to totally reject it.

What is the need for the government to bring in the law in such a hurry, he asked and said that the TDP founder and former chief minister late N T Rama Rao had created a history in the state by establishing health university in 1986 to bring all the medical colleges under a common umbrella. The university has been named after the late NTR as he brought in radical changes in medical education, Naidu observed.

He said in the past 24 years, several thousands of students obtained medical degrees from the colleges affiliated to this university, he said and pointed out that of the 32 medical colleges in the state 16 colleges, including three private and five government institutions, were established during the TDP government. During the three-and-half-year YSRCP rule, permission has been granted only to three colleges and the construction of these colleges has not been completed yet, he said.