On matters of health, Mumbai's municipal councillors appear to have found more pressing concerns than the city's poor fight against tuberculosis, and over bearing seasonal illnesses such as dengue and swine flu. In the last five years, during health committee meetings, maximum motions raised were to rename the government-run hospitals and health centers, an RTI query found.
As per the Right To Information (RTI) reply received by Praja Foundation, 67 renaming motions were raised by the municipal councillors during public health committee meetings between 2012 and 2017.
In 2016-17, Shiv Sena's Pramod Sawant raised the question of changing the name of the Marol Maroshi Road (ward no.74) municipal maternity home to Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Maternity Home.
In another, older instance, a question was raised on naming the Kandivli-based Shatabdi Hospital as Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital.
Meanwhile, a dismal 45 questions were raised on tuberculosis (TB) in the last five years.
"Of these, only four questions were raised during the meetings on TB in last three years from 2013 to 2017," Milind Mhaske, Project Director of Praja Foundation, said.
The most recent question on TB was raised on March 31 by municipal councillor of ward 168, Saeeda Arif Khan. The NCP corporator raised a question about providing milk and ground nuts to TB patients seeking treatment in municipal hospitals.
"Not a single question was raised by the corporators on diarrhoea in the last four years, from 2013 to 2017," Mhaske said.
The RTI details received on Wednesday, have come as a shocker, health activists said.
The city has seen a 37 per cent rise in the incidence of TB between 2012-17. According to the 2016-17 government data, over 50,000 TB cases have been registered at government institutes.
TB NEWS IN NUMBERS
- An estimated 32,862 people died due to TB in the last five years (April 2012-March 2017)
Ward-wise worst affected TB hotspots in 2016-17
L ward (Kurla) 1254 cases
H/E ward (Santacruz) 659 cases
R/S ward (Kandivli) 493 cases
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