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Members of the Vijayapura Government Medical College Agitation Committee has strongly condemned the State government’s move to set up a medical college under PPP mode in Vijayapura.
At a meeting convened to discuss the future course of agitation there on Tuesday, several leaders spoke of what they thought will be the potential dangers of such a move.
Activists, thinkers, writers and businessmen hailing from the undivided Bijapur district who are now residents of Bengaluru and other places also attended the meeting.
They expressed their support for the indefinite strike demanding the establishment of a government medical college with the vision of health of the common people and medical education of poor children.
Activist Siddanagouda Patil said that agitations will soon be organized in Bengaluru.
The spokespersons later told reporters that a decision to have a series of agitations in Bengaluru was taken at a recent meeting of people of Vijayapura origin in Bengaluru.
“We want to build pressure on the State government to establish a government medical college and not under PPP mode. A delegation will meet the Chief Minister, the Health Minister and the Medical Education Minister and other leaders and officials and convince them to drop the PPP model,’’ Dr. Patil said.
He said that the decision of successive governments to set up PPP model medical colleges or to hand over government hospitals to private agencies to run medical colleges have not gone down well with the people.
“Experiments in Raichur and Udupi have shown that these institutions have not served the general public properly. The poor, especially, have been kept out of such institutions,” he said.
“Post the globalisation policies of 1991, privatisation has increased in every sector, including the essential services that includes education and health. Private investment has increased immensely in the service sector that was considered a no-profit sector. Such attempts have been given attractive names like BOOT and PPP. Such systems are fatal for the country. Therefore, we are fighting against these policies and the systems, not against any Central or State governments or any individual leader or party,” Dr. Patil said.
“B.R. Ambedkar wanted the manufacturing sector and service sectors to remain under government ownership. But today’s governments have moved away from the Directive Principles of the Constitution and the concept of a welfare state and are going to privatize everything. If the government goes on privatising vital sectors like highways, health, education and insurance, what is left for the governments to do?” he said.
“When the government starts PPP model medical colleges, it amounts to denying citizens the right to health. The whole medical education sector is like a mafia that feeds on capitation fees. Children of the poor and the deprived are systematically kept out of medical education. The State government has also started an anti-people move of selling seats in government medical colleges to NRI students. This should be withdrawn,” he said.
Dr. Patil found fault with the politicians of Vijayapura district. Most of them speak about various other development issues but none speaks of the PPP model college issue. Why not? This question needs to be answered,” he said.
He also said that the State government is discriminating against North Karnataka. “The same State government that wants to open a government medical college in Kanakapura, wants to give away government hospital, land, other infrastructure and staff to a private agency in Vijayapura. We suspect that this is a part of a bigger plan or a shady financial deal,” he said.
He warned of an intensive struggle if the State government does not settle these issues in the winter session of the State Legislature in Belagavi.
Retired professor Aravind Malagatti said that privatising higher education will not solve the problems of the vastly uneducated and under educated masses of this country.
Thinker G.B. Patil said that government medical colleges are public property and that they need to be saved.
“I think there is a plan to systematically sell all public sector undertakings in the country. All the institutions started by Sir M. Visvesvaraya in the State have been sold off. Only a few are left. The goose that lays the golden egg is being killed,” G.B. Patil said.
Basavaraj Sulibavi said that governments elected by the poor masses are working for a few rich families in the State. “If the people do not understand this and wake up, privatisation will come for us all and all of us will be evicted from our villages and towns,” he said.
Leaders like Sharif Muthu, Vidyavati Ankalagi, Channu Kattimani, Father Kevin, Bharath Kumar H.T., Anil Hosamani, Srinath Poojary and others were present.
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