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to meet the demand. Incidentally, Andhra Pradesh had the largest number of medical colleges in India even at that time. The other features included training conducted by the Medical Department for building up manpower of ancillary staff, increasing bed strength of hospitals at all levels, expansion of primary health centres from 170 to 300 in one year, funding for infrastructure (buildings) and research in Unani and Ayurveda. As can be seen, his focus was primarily on increasing the number of medical personnel while at the same time expanding the reach of services rapidly.In his reply to the debate on the health budget, he responded to criticism on the inadequacy of the budget allocation, with the following words: %u201cI may be forgiven if I point out that this department is one of those departments which is not favoured as much as it ought to be by the planners, by our Finance Department and by other members of Government and everybody. Everybody treats this Department with a stepmotherly attitude. Nevertheless, during the last fourteen months I have been in charge of the department, I am happy to state that with the cooperation of the doctors and also the various other medical personnel some strides have been made in maintaining very high standards of efficiency. As far as I am concerned, I have been more harsh to my department personnel than kind to them. As a matter of fact, without any reservation, I may say that a greater number of corrupt or inefficient officials in my department have been censured during the last year than in any other department of the whole of this Government.%u201dPVG Raju was clearly wary of corruption and nepotism. Talking about nepotism and recommendations in the matter of appointments and promotions he says, %u201cI can certainly say that 132