TTD intends to take control of SVIMS

Tirupati: Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams are toying with the idea of taking total control of Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS). If everything goes in the expected direction, the TTD Trust Board meeting to be held on this Wednesday will formally approve the decision leaving other formalities to be completed at the government's end.

SVIMS was conceived in the year 1986 on the lines of All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, during the tenure of then Chief Minister of AP NT Rama Rao and started functioning from February 26, 1993 by an Act of AP State Legislature.

Though SVIMS was launched by TTD as part of its dedicated services, the administrative control had gone into the hands of the government making the Chief Minister its Chancellor and governing body Chairman.

Since then, the Institute has grown by leaps and bounds and has developed as a centre of excellence for providing medical care and now it is the only super speciality hospital in the residual state of AP.

With more than 1,500 beds and rendering services in 30 plus departments it has been serving the people of the Rayalaseema region as well as Nellore and Prakasam districts. Yet, there was a huge criticism that the Institute would have grown even bigger and extend more services.

Such criticisms obviously point towards TTD for one reason or the other though they have a very limited control over the Institute despite providing financial assistance of about Rs 30 crore per annum.

On the contrary the government has been giving Rs 60 lakh per annum. Though the administrative powers were rested in the hands of the government though it was contributing limited resources, it was felt that it never gave its helping hand to develop the SVIMS to make it a more popular one.

The Institute has celebrated silver jubilee last year. Yet, during all these years there was no salary budget to the Institute. Though it was established on the lines of AIIMS, the financial resources of the two institutes are no match with each other.

AIIMS got a grant-in-aid of Rs 2,400 crore in 2017 from the Central Government which was hiked by 25 per cent in 2018 to make it Rs 3,018 crore as against Rs 60 lakh grant in aid SVIMS receiving. Even NIMS, Hyderabad, was getting about Rs140 crore from the government.

Having no powers in its hand over the Institute, in all adverse situations it was being blamed from all quarters. From this point, the idea of taking over the control of SVIMS has generated.

However, Balaji Institute of Surgery, Research and Rehabilitation for the disabled (BIRRD) in Tirupati was being run completely by TTD and having control of all its activities, recruitment and development. Now, TTD wants to take over SVIMS also into its fold from the government and to develop it on all fronts so as to enable it to extend the best super speciality medical care to the needy.

It may be noted that by running several educational institutes from primary to degree level, TTD was instrumental in making the city to earn the fame as educational hub. Apart from BIRRD, it has been running Ayurveda hospital besides its own central hospital successfully.

However, it was learnt that some unions in TTD have been opposing the idea of the management to take over SVIMS. However, the Trust Board in all likelihood may take up the proposal in its meeting to arrive at a positive conclusion.