Udupi: CM Siddaramaiah inaugurated the Government Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Haji Abdulla Memorial Maternity and Children’s Hospital here on Sunday.

Addressing the media at Circuit House near Bannanje, the CM said that the proposed amendments to Karnataka Medical Private Establishments (KPME) Act were chalked out not to restrict doctors but to help the needy. The changes to the KPME Act made doctors protests from across the state, till finally the government agreed to their demands to modify the Bill before tabling it in the Assembly.

To a question on the alleged privatisation of the Udupi government hospital for mother and child care, he said, “It is not privatisation. The hospital will still be government’s, they will only run the administration.”

Dr B R Shetty, health minister Ramesh Kumar, minister K J George, Udupi district in-charge minister Pramod Madhwaraj, MLC Ivan D’Souza, MLA Vinay Kumar Sorake and others were present.