3.3 Crore power bill to Satya Sai Hospital

The Sathya Sai Central Trust has not been spared by the government a second time, now in terms of offering subsidy to the Trust for supply of power to the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, a Super Speciality hospital.

The Satya Sai Central Trust was on Friday served with a notice to cough up the power bill amounting to Rs 3.3 crore on account of the cited hospital. Hitherto, out of a unit cost of Rs 4.30, the state government was offering Rs 4 per unit and 30 paisa was paid by the Trust.

The power bill of Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital at Puttaparthi amounted to Rs 3.3 crore. The government has decided to treat the Super Speciality Hospital at Puttaparthi on par with other hospitals. The move came in the wake of swift developments wherein the Trust was served earlier a notice by the government in respect of Trust accounts/appointments among others.

Principal Secretary, (Finance Department), Suthirtha Bhattacharya in an exclusive interview with Cinejosh informed that the AP Power Distribution Company was left with no alternative in the situation except serving the demand notice to the Trust for recovery of the electricity bill.

The government, it is understood, saw no reason why it should not cease paying subsidy to the Sathya Sai Central Trust. However it was not clear why the government took a decision to cease providing power subsidy to the Sathya Sai Super-Speciality Hospital which had been offering free treatment to the poor which was denied by any other hospital of Super Speciality status.

Is this because of the absence of the spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba or due to the discrepancies/ differences developed among the members of the Trust over its continuation? So far, the ‘successor’ issue has been hanging fire.

It may be recalled that security cover was offered to the Trustees of the Sathya Sai Central Trust and to Satyajit, the spiritual leader’s aide. There is also a growing anger among a section of people, especially local political leaders against the Trust members.

It is also reckoned that the Central Trust owned assets worth over Rs 40,000 crore and it was yet to decide on a successor to the spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba. A section of the press also gave wide coverage to the 'property' found in the Prashanti Nilayam. There was speculation that that the state government had set its eyes on the Trust and its funds.

The trust is also supposed to reply to the state government’s notice on its functioning and finance upkeep of all, including the sister concerns of the entire organisation etc. The reply is expected in a day or two. In this backdrop the power subsidy to the trust has also been stopped.