TDP chief and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is meeting Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan at Raj Bhavan in Vijayawada on Thursday. He is lodging a complaint with the Governor against the state government changing the name of Dr NTR University of Health Sciences into Dr YSR University of Health Sciences.
The TDP had been protesting against the change of name for the country’s first university. It was late Dr N T Rama Rao, as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, started the medical and health university for the first time in the country in 1986. He named it as the Andhra Pradesh University of Health Sciences.
After initial work in Hyderabad, NTR shifted the university to Vijayawada. NTR was also the chancellor of the University. It was named after its founder NTR by then chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in 1998, after NTR’s death. It was Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy who added “Doctor” prefix to the university name in 2006 on the request of late Devineni Rajasekhar Nehru. Since then, it has been called Dr NTR University of Health Sciences.
The YSR Congress government led by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had renamed the university dropping NTR’s name and giving Dr YSR name to the university through a bill in the Assembly. The TDP had been opposing the decision and wanted the state government to revert the decision.
Chandrababu Naidu is leading a delegation to the Governor to lodge a complaint with Raj Bhavan against the change of name. The TDP said that it would fight against this government’s decision and would revert the name once it comes to power in the state after the 2024 general elections.
