Mancherial: An integrated market of vegetables and non-vegetables under construction will soon pave way for the proposed Hospital Materno Infantil (MCH) in the heart of Mancherial district.
Work on the market will proceed from 2021 on vacant land at the Roads and Works Department office facilities near IB Chowk at an estimated cost of Rs 7.2 million. The foundation and pillars of the facilities were constructed at a cost of Rs 3 million. The work was delayed after the death of the owner of the executing agency.
However, newly elected MLA K Premsagar Rao, while addressing reporters in Mancherial on December 19, announced that the MCH would be constructed in place of the integrated market for the convenience of patients. Rao said the integrated market at IB Chowk was an announcement. Medicine of the previous government.
Rao argued that the place was located near the Government General Hospital attached to the Government Medical Faculty. He was of the opinion that if MCH is located in IB category then first time mothers can be easily shifted to MCH. Earlier, the decision to build an integrated vegetable market here was also opposed.
On the other hand, MCH was built on a land near College Road and Orilas of Godavari and cost Rs 17.80 million. The facility was inaugurated by the then health minister T Harish Rao in 2022. However, when the city experienced flash floods in the same year and in July 2023, the patients and the team were evacuated to GGH.
The residents of the area demand that in view of the floods, the MCH should be shifted to a safer place. However, he expressed concern over the wastage of public funds. K Balaraju Sharma, a city resident, said, “The money spent for the construction of an integrated market for vegetables and MCH will be of no use except for the establishment of the hospital and withdrawal.”
Mancherial Municipality officials were not available to speak on the MLA’s decision.