The public health infrastructure across Karnataka is inadequate, forcing families to seek care in private hospitals that charge exorbitant fees. This forces families to choose between losing a loved one or facing destitution.
Published Nov 01, 2025 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Nov 01, 2025 | 7:00 AM
Chigateri District Hospital, Davangere is one of the district hospitals that has been chosen by the state government for PPP model. (Supplied)
Synopsis: The Karnataka government is handing over government hospitals to private players to operate them on a PPP model. However, the state doesn’t seem to have learnt from its experience. Those at the receiving end are the poor.
The Congress came to power in Karnataka riding on the back of several promises. While some have been implemented wholeheartedly and others halfheartedly, some have yet to be rolled out.
When it comes to healthcare, the pro-people commitment lies in a shambles, with the government refusing to learn from several failed policies.
The public health infrastructure across Karnataka is inadequate, forcing families to seek care in private hospitals that charge exorbitant fees. This forces families to choose between losing a loved one or facing destitution.
Instead of strengthening public facilities, the administration continues to court the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model that has only drained public resources and left people to the mercy of the private healthcare sector.
For the period 2018- 2023, ₹6,286 crore was reimbursed to empanelled private hospitals under the Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka Insurance Scheme. Extending grants and subsidies, and handing over public lands and infrastructure sans accountability or responsibility seems to be the new ‘Karnataka model’.
District hospitals are earmarked for being handed over to corporate players in the name of efficiency. But where is efficiency? While Apollo abandoned the OPEC (Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality) Hospital in Raichur, the one at Udupi was left to the mercy of BRS Shetty, who abandoned the idea midway, affecting patients and their families.
The state is not merely failing in its duty but has turned to be an agent of predatory private entities that monetise the suffering of its most vulnerable citizens. The chief minister and the health minister need to take a firm stand against the PPP model instead of justifying it.
Adding to its long list of failed PPPs, the government has now, inspired by NITI Aayog’s 2019 blueprint, decided to hand over public district hospitals to private players on 99-year leases.
Nine district hospitals, at Tumakuru, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Kolar, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Bengaluru Rural, Vijayapura, and Vijayanagara, are facing handover.
Ramanagara and Bagalkot were initially included, but excluded with the announcements of new government medical colleges.
People’s resistance to PPP models is neither new nor sporadic. It has been an ongoing struggle in the state against the commercialisation of healthcare. While not all actions have yielded the desired results, people are not giving up.
When the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) in Raichur was handed over to the Apollo Group, it was explicitly agreed that at least 70 percent of patients should be from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. But soon enough, irregularities emerged.
As early as 2007, the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha had formally complained about how hospital services were being brokered for commissions and becoming inaccessible to BPL patients. Citing that their cards were found to have ‘irregularities’, patients were asked to deposit ₹25,000 each. They were promised reimbursement, but were later informed that their cards had been rejected.
On the one hand, the hospital agents collected money. On the other hand, the government reimbursed the medical expenses of the poor. This large-scale fraud was exposed by the local sanghatans. They complained to the principal secretary of health and family welfare, who instituted an enquiry.
This fraud was also picked up by the local audit circle. Apart from being directed to reimburse the deposit, Apollo Hospital faced no disciplinary action.
The simmering anger against the Apollo management exploded into the ‘Save OPEC’ campaign when the contract was due for renewal. The ‘Save OPEC’ struggle committee was formed under the leadership of a senior trade union leader.
Meanwhile, Apollo abandoned the hospital and decamped, leaving the staff in a lurch. The government refused to entertain the demands of the staff to be reinstated, claiming they were not government employees.
In desperation, the workers launched a 24×7 dharna in front of the hospital with the Save OPEC Committee’s support. Local MLAs and MPs were pressured to take a clear stance, and the matter reached the Cabinet and the Chief Minister’s Office.
The ‘Save OPEC’ Committee demanded that RGSSH should not be handed back to Apollo, and that it be made an autonomous institution with all the former staff reinstated.
In August 2013, the home minister agreed to the demands, but it took three years for the hospital to function again. Meanwhile, the toll on the infrastructure as well as on the protesting staff and patients was huge.
The Udupi district hospital and the maternal and child health hospital were handed over to a UAE-based businessman, BR Shetty’s company, BRS Ventures, for 30-60 years, with a commitment to renovate the MCH hospital and build a 400-bed super specialty hospital.
The land on which the hospital stood had been donated by Haji Abdullah Saheb, the founder of Corporation Bank and a philanthropist, with the explicit condition that the land would be used only for a government hospital serving the community, particularly the poor.
For the citizens of Udupi, who revered Haji Abdullah Saheb, the government’s move was an insult to his memory and a betrayal of people’s interests.
Local sanghatans, writers, progressive social movements, public intellectuals and ordinary citizens came together to oppose this move through online petitions, social media campaigns and large mobilisations on the ground. In October 2016, citizens marched in silence through the streets of Udupi carrying placards, saying, “Public hospitals belong to citizens”, “We want our health care rights, not charity”.
This march culminated in a public meeting where the same demands were again raised.
“It is cruel that the government can spend ₹1n700 crore for a mere 7-km steel flyover but claims to be a pauper when it comes to running a public hospital. If the government does not have money to run the hospital, each of us will contribute from our own pocket,” a senior citizen said.
The march and the public meeting were followed by a relay hunger strike. Yet the government decided to go ahead with the handover without even a tendering process.
Not surprisingly, midway through the project, BRS Ventures dropped out amid allegations of financial fraud. The construction of the 400-bed super specialty hospital stopped, leaving the building abandoned. The district hospital is awaiting construction, apparently due to a shortage of funds.
Davanagere and Bijapur
In 2022, there was a large-scale mobilisation that continues till date against the handing over of the popular Chitageri Government Hospital, which also caters to nearby districts of Haveri and Chitradurga, to a medical college under the PPP model.
Mobilisation against the PPP model in Bijapura began in January 2023 when the district hospital was shortlisted to be handed over to a private medical college under the PPP model.
On 25 January 2023, thousands of women, workers, students, and senior citizens participated in a massive protest in front of the District Hospital, which was followed by protests in the district’s all taluks. The struggle intensified over the past few months under the leadership of the “Sarkari Vaidyakeeya College Sthapana Horata Samiti”.
The Samiti began an indefinite protest on 18 September 2025. Every day, hundreds of people from women’s sangathans, slumdwellers’ collectives, progressive citizens’ forums and youth organisations from all parts of the district are gathering at the protest site.
The committee plans to launch a 24×7 protest as a run-up to the Cabinet meeting slated to be held in Bijapur at the end of this month.
The protests are poised to spread to other districts where such PPP models are planned. The people have made it clear that they will not mortgage their lives to predatory private interests.
The question is whether Siddaramaiah’s government will listen to the people who brought it back to power — or whether it will bulldoze ahead to represent and privilege profits over people.
(Views expressed are of the authors. Edited by Majnu Babu).
