In a humanitarian gesture, the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government has cleared the entire hospital bill of renowned Telugu film lyricist Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry, who passed away due to lung cancer in Hyderabad on Tuesday evening.
According to hospital sources, soon after coming to know about the death of Sirivennela, the chief minister reportedly enquired about the financial condition of the lyricist and offered to clear the entire hospital expenses incurred by his family.
Within minutes, the hospital authorities received a phone call from the chief minister’s office asking them to send the bill details so that it would be cleared.
“It was really surprising that the Andhra Pradesh chief minister responded so fast,” a hospital source said.
Sirivennela is the native of Anakapalle in Visakhapatnam district and Jagan might have thought it is his moral responsibility to help the great lyricist.
In fact, the family members of Sirivennela were planning to seek some monetary help from the Telangana chief minister from the CM Relief Fund, apart from requesting the hospital authorities to give some discount in the hospital bill, as they were not in a position to bear such a huge burden.
But even before they approached anybody for help, Sirivennela breathed his last in the evening. And Jagan was kind enough to respond even before getting a request from Sirivennela’s family members.
However, it is not clear how much the hospital has charged for the treatment of Sirivennela and how much the Jagan government was paying the hospital.
“It must be considerably a big amount, as the lyricist had been on ECMO treatment for the last three days, which is very costly,” a source said.
