The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has opposed the proposal to rename Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences (NTRUHS) as Dr. YSR University of Health Sciences (YSRUHS).
Soon after the Legislative Assembly passed the ‘Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2022’ on Wednesday, TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu demanded that NTR’s name be continued for the health university.
In a statement, Mr. Naidu said none of the Chief Ministers, including Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, had attempted to rename NTRUHS, which won accolades across the country. “It is illogical to rename NTRUHS after 36 long years of its establishment,” Mr. Naidu said.
The former Chief Minister of combined Andhra Pradesh, N.T. Rama Rao, with a view that medical education should have a separate university, had established the university in 1986, Mr. Naidu said.
After NTR’s demise in 1998, the TDP government had named the university after him, he said.
“The university was formed by NTR. How can Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy rename it after his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy?,” the TDP president asked.
“The State government can establish new institutes and name them after YSR, but it cannot change the names of existing educational institutions,” he said.
The government could not establish a single institution during its term so far but was eager to change the names of existing ones, he said.
The YSRCP government, which managed to divert ₹450 crore funds of NTRUHS had no right to change the name of the institution, he added.
