Tirupathi, June 12, 2013: 

The State Government has announced to run Sri Padmavathi Medical College at Renigunta in accordance with public interest.

The college, which should have come up on a public-private partnership, was mired in a number of controversies. The project was actually conceived way back in August 2010 as a tie-up between Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam and SVIMS Health, Medical, Education and Research Foundation, and the pact was signed by the respective representatives N. Rama Sarma (trustee) and V.S.R. Anjaneyulu (the then Registrar of SVIMS).

The TTD’s Chairman, Executive Officer, District Collector and SVIMS Director would be on the board as ex-officio trustees, while the Kanchi pontiff Sri Sankaracharya would nominate eight members to the trust. It was on this ground that the Government allotted 60 acres of land free of cost to the foundation.

Things started going awry when five trustees belonging to a single family and part of a private trust were inducted into the trust board without any intimation to the ex-officio members (representing the State).

When the private trust issued advertisements on Monday attributing motives to ex-officio trustees representing SVIMS, the Government announced that it would take steps to run the college, as the foundation had failed to start the same under the public-private partnership mode as per the MoU.