Students from the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and other groups argue that the PPP model would commodify medical education.
Published Oct 23, 2025 | 5:43 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 23, 2025 | 5:43 PM
Representational image. Credit: iStock
Synopsis: Retired IAS officer Dr PV Ramesh criticises Andhra Pradesh’s PPP policy privatising 10 medical colleges, calling it unconstitutional and harmful to marginalised students. He warns of losing 33,000 seats and jobs, urging public sector retention. Protests by YSRCP and student groups escalate, while the TDP government defends the model, claiming it addresses doctor shortages.
As Andhra Pradesh grapples with increasing protests over the privatisation of public healthcare institutions, retired IAS officer Dr PV Ramesh has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of the state government’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) policy.
He has termed the move to hand over 10 government medical colleges to private entities “unconstitutional” and “a direct assault on the right to life.”
Dr Ramesh, a 1985-batch IAS officer from the Andhra Pradesh cadre with a background in medicine and extensive experience in health administration, contends that the policy allows the government to abdicate its core duty of ensuring affordable, quality healthcare.
He warned that it would also deny thousands of students and job aspirants from marginalised communities fair opportunities in medical education and employment.
In a detailed post on X, Dr. Ramesh wrote that it is the fundamental responsibility of every government to make quality healthcare — a driver of inclusive economic growth — accessible to all. He pointed out that Andhra Pradesh ranks among the lowest of southern states in maternal and infant mortality and malnutrition indices.
Calling the PPP model a backdoor route to privatisation, Dr Ramesh alleged that the government was “shirking its responsibility and attempting to benefit its associates and cronies.”
According to him, shifting 10 government medical colleges to the PPP mode would cost around 500 MBBS seats and 250–300 postgraduate seats in the general category every year.
An equal number of MBBS and PG/super-specialty seats reserved for OBC, SC, ST, and EWS students would also disappear. Over the 33-year contract period, he estimated that students from poor and underprivileged backgrounds would lose nearly 33,000 seats.
He further argued that if these 10 colleges were retained in the public sector, the expansion would create thousands of jobs and promotion opportunities for doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff — prospects that would now be severely curtailed.
Each of these colleges, he said, would have employed nearly 3,000 doctors and around 20,000 personnel at various levels, offering livelihoods to 10,000 candidates from OBC, SC, ST, and EWS categories and another 10,000 meritorious aspirants. “Under the PPP arrangement, all of them will lose these opportunities,” he warned.
Dr Ramesh suggested that instead of pursuing privatisation, the government should develop at least five of these medical colleges into autonomous referral centers specialising in oncology, cardiology, neurology, nephrology, and other super-specialties. Such an approach, he said, would ensure world-class medical education and healthcare services for the people.
“Otherwise,” he cautioned, “we risk a future where doctors exist only on paper — ‘certificate doctors’ without adequate training or competence.”
He urged the government to scrap the PPP policy, which he said “deals a double blow to both merit and the poor,” and to continue operating medical colleges in the public sector.
He also demanded the repeal of G.O. Nos. 107 and 108, introduced by the previous YSRCP government, holding the state responsible for strengthening public health.
The controversy has erupted amid intensifying agitations across Andhra Pradesh, led by the opposition YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and supported by student unions, health activists, and civil society groups.
Protests have gathered steam since September, when the YSRCP launched its “Chalo Medical Colleges” campaign on September 19, followed by plans for mass dharnas on 28 October and a signature drive aimed at collecting one crore endorsements against the privatisation plan.
Students from the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and other groups argue that the PPP model would commodify medical education, pushing it beyond the reach of the poor and widening social inequalities in a state already lagging behind on health parameters.
However, the TDP-led coalition government has defended the model, claiming it would revive stalled investments, add 110 undergraduate seats annually for local students, and provide free outpatient and inpatient services comparable to corporate hospital standards.
Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav has dismissed opposition allegations as “misinformation,” asserting that the PPP model addresses the acute doctor shortage, with nearly 59 percent of assistant professor posts in specialties lying vacant.
Even as the Andhra Pradesh High Court recently refused to grant an interim stay on the bidding process — effectively allowing the government to proceed — the YSRCP has vowed to intensify its agitation. Party strategist Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy announced statewide rallies on 12 November, calling the movement “a people’s fight against the sale of public assets to private lobbies.”
(Edited by Amit Vasudev)
