MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni on Wednesday showered praises over the BMC for its "extraordinary vision" and efforts to arrest the virus. The HC said other municipal corporations in the state must follow the vision of the BMC.
The bench was seized with a bunch of PILs highlighting the Covid crisis in Maharashtra and Mumbai.
On Wednesday when the matter came up for hearing senior counsel Anil Sakhare for the BMC submitted a short affidavit before the judges.
The bench noted that there has been a reduction in active as well as daily cases in the city.
"On Tuesday we recorded around 954 cases, we have come down from 1000 plus cases now," Sakhare submitted.
At this, the judges noted that with less cases, there have been more beds lying vacant in the civic run hospitals.
"Can't these beds and facilities made available for people from adjoining cities/districts?" Justice Kulkarni questioned.
At this, Sakhare responded, "We are already providing such facilities. We arent asking people as to from which city or state they are coming from? We are only giving them the requisite treatment."
"We are now gearing up for the third wave to ensure that children are provided better facilities," the senior counsel added.
Having heard the submissions, Justice Kulkarni told advocate Abhijit Kulkarni, appearing for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to learn from the BMC.
"See the extraordinary vision and pattern of the BMC. There are so many hospitals and medical colleges run by the BMC in Mumbai and every one of them has a bed capacity of about 1000 to 2000 beds. We have KEM, Sion etc." Justice Kulkarni said.
"This is the extraordinary vision. I guess no other municipal corporations in this state have such a vision. And that is the reason BMC controlled this pandemic and is still dealing with it properly," the judge added.
The bench further noted that just like BMC no other civic bodies in the state have multiple hospitals-cum-medical colleges.
"In some corporations there is not a single such hospital cum medical college. And the ones, who have such facilities, the public health has taken a back seat," CJ Datta pointed.
