Telangana's Deputy Chief Minister Mehmood Ali on Saturday said spending 100 crore rupees on the maintenance of ancient structures or turning them into a museum was futile, and added that if the Charminar becomes weak, it too will be demolished.
Ali remarked, "If Charminar becomes weak after 200-500 years, it will have to be demolished too. After becoming weak, it can fall any time and people may lose their lives."
While pointing out that after spending 100 crore rupees on the Osmania General Hospital, the government will only get a warranty for 8-10 years, Ali said, "Instead of spending 100 crore rupees from the taxpayers' money and demolishing it 10 years later, we are turning it into a good hospital."
When asked about turning the structure into a museum, Ali asked, "Where are we going to build a dawakhana? Do we want a museum or medical treatment?"
He pointed out that when poor people fall sick, they have to go to corporate medical facilities and bear bills worth 10-20 lakh rupees. "We will not turn that dawakhana into a one-floor building but a 10-15 floor hospital that will be one of the few of its kind in India and the number of patients that seek medical help from the facility will be 10 times the number of people that come to the hospital currently. We will turn it into a high-level dawakhana and it will be named Osmania," Ali told ANI.
He further said, "If we change its name, then people will definitely raise objection. But we are not changing its name".
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Ali said that people were trying to turn Osmania dwakhana into a 'political issue,' adding that his government 'strongly objected' to it.
The Osmania General Hospital was built in 1919 and designed by British architect Vincent Jerome Esch.
Hyderabad, which is 424-years-old, is dotted with such structures. If the reasoning being applied behind the demolition of Osmania Hospital finds acceptance, then several such structures would be razed to the ground too.
