Vijayawada: CPI National Secretary K Ramakrishna strongly criticised the State government for pursuing what he termed “dangerous privatisation policies” in key sectors such as education and healthcare under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. He alleged that government medical colleges and other valuable public assets were being handed over to private players, which he described as an anti-people move.

As part of the CPI’s statewide protest call, the CPI Vijayawada city committee organised a dharna at Dharna Chowk here on Thursday. Leaders demanded that the government withdraw the PPP immediately and cancel government orders issued for privatising medical colleges.

The leaders warned that protests would intensify across the State if the government failed to reverse its decision.

Addressing the gathering, Ramakrishna said that transferring government land, buildings, and medical colleges constructed with Central approvals to private individuals amounted to clear privatisation, despite claims to the contrary by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

He alleged that thousands of crores worth of public assets are being handed over to a few private entities.

He pointed out that the education sector in the State was already largely privatised, with a majority of primary, intermediate, and engineering institutions under private management. Similar trends were now being extended to the medical sector, which could deny affordable healthcare to the poor. He questioned the need for PPP when government-run institutions like AIIMS were functioning successfully.

CPI Vijayawada city secretary G Koteswara Rao, State intellectuals’ forum leader Chalasani Srinivasa Rao, CPI NTR district secretary Donepudi Shankar, AISF leader V Johnson Babu, and AITUC State general secretary S Venkata Subbaiah also addressed the protest.