Column

Can you imagine an apparel manufacturing unit bang in the middle of a hustling-bustling Sir JJ Hospital? DNA blew the lid off the scam this week. A considerable portion on the 47-acre hospital land has transformed into a mini-industrial estate — churning out illegal footwear and apparel, ingeniously run by some migrants suspected to be from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Over a dozen small scale industrial units have occupied nearly 20% of the hospital compound and the space behind the official quarters of the staff, squatters even managed to get their hands on ration cards! Perhaps in due course of time, they would have got Unique Identification Numbers too. It is shocking to see that they were using power, water and sanitation facilities meant for the hospital.The dean’s requests to the municipal corporation to act against the wanton infringement fell on deaf ears of civic authorities, as usual.

It is more interesting to note that the alleged encroachers are maintaining that the area was rightfully theirs, since they paid a modest rent on a regular basis to the Public Works Department.

When the matter blew in their face, since the dean’s efforts to remove them had proved futile; the state government decided to initiate action against the squatters.

The issue played straight into the hands of the city’s self-appointed guardians who kicked up a shindig. Minister for medical education Varsha Gaikwad’s decision to send a team of doctors and officers to the hospital’s campus to remove squatters ‘immediately’, was akin to locking the stable after the horses had bolted!

A few points come to mind in this issue. Firstly the issue of encroachment is not a political football for political parties to score goals with. Secondly, what is the state government waiting for? Are they waiting for the encroachers to ensconce themselves at the state secretariat in Nariman Point, and also produce the Unique Identification Number before the authorities frame a policy to clear them. If an illegal unit can flourish cheek-by-jowl in a hospital, what will be the score of public health? This is why, come monsoon, scores of citizens fall prey to dengue and malaria, newborns get swapped in delivery rooms, cataract operations go awry… the list is endless. Our politicians, obviously can afford the best of super-speciality healthcare facilities, but what about those whose income is not even enough to have two full meals a day? Good healthcare is the least the state can provide to its constituents—minimum for those who queue up under the sweltering heatand vote them to power.