HYDERABAD: Health Minister K. Rosaiah has justified the order to lease out vacant lands of Government hospitals for construction of shopping complexes and rejected Telugu Desam demand to withdraw it. He said the decision was aimed at earning revenue and improving the hospitals. It was restricted only to those hospitals around which markets had sprung up, he clarified.

Insufficient funds

At a press conference here on Friday, Mr Rosaiah explained that the funds released by the Government in lieu of user charges which were scrapped were insufficient and hospitals were struggling for money. As a way out, a proposal was made by the department to lease out vacant lands without affecting the functioning of the hospitals.

Asserting that there were enough safeguards, Mr Rosaiah said that hospital development would have to clear the leases which would be given for 25 years to the highest bidder. The lease amount would be hiked by 5 per cent every year and the money would be utilised for hospital development alone. The lease would be terminated if the land was used for other purposes. The Minister contended that Telugu Desam leaders had no moral right to seek withdrawal of the GO, referring to what he called "looting" of Government hospitals when they were in power. He cited leasing of lands for a pittance in the premises of Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam, and the headquarters hospital, Kurnool.

Land for one of the four medical shops in NIMS premises was given for just Rs 400 a month, and the remaining three for 8,500. The Congress Government had now reversed this by fixing the monthly rent at Rs 17.2 lakhs.

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