Mumbai
To raise the menace of rats and rat bites at a civic hospital in suburban Kandivali, a BJP corporator took a rat in a cage to the general body meeting of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to drive home his point.
He said he had caught the rat alive at the BMC-run Dr Ambedkar General Hospital where two women patients had been bitten by rats, and said that if he could do so, “why couldn’t the BMC get rid of this menace.”
His aim of drawing notice to the health hazards due to the presence of rats in civic hospitals worked as it created a ruckus in the meeting with Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar, who was presiding over the meeting, asking Yadav and his supporters to leave the house.
“This was the only way to shake and wake up the administration which has completely failed to control the nuisance of rat-bites at the hospital,” said Yadav, a third-time corporator from ward number 31 in Kandivali. Last week, two women, including a patient stricken by paralysis, admitted to this hospital, also known as Shatabdi Hospital, were bitten by rats.
Yadav said that instead of being administered care for the illness for which they were admitted, the patients’ relatives had to run around to ensure rat bites were treated.
Yadav told PTI, “I raised the issue with local ward officer several times, but no action was taken. Finally, to bring this menace to the notice of senior officials, I went to the hospital, trapped a rat and brought it to the BMC headquarters,” and asked what the BMC-employed rat catchers were doing. Following Yadav’s protest, the hospital was compelled to lay traps and seek the help of the insecticide department of the BMC.
Earlier on Thursday, the BMC general body discussed a notice moved by Congress corporator Ashraf Azmi from Kurla on the poor condition of civic hospitals. According to Azmi, the civic administration has failed to spend the funds allocated in the budget for the health department.
