Mumbai: HC asks BMC why it can't crack the whip on illegal nursing homes

The High Court on Monday asked Mumbais civic body why it was not cracking the whip on illegal nursing homesA bench of Justices Anil Menon and MS Karnik asked the question to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation after noting that an inspection conducted by the civic body in December last year of 1574 clinics or private hospitals showed that only 687 had complied with fire safety and other normsThe HC was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by one Shakeel Shaik through his counsel advocate Mohammed Zain KhanThe plea highlighted an incident from 2019 where an unauthorized health camp organized in the city without meeting requisite fire norms witnessed an accident that resulted in the death of a threeyearold childSenior counsel Milind Sathe who appeared for BMC told HC it did take action but often it was unable to close them as there were patients in these illegal nursing homesWe cant understand how the BMC is so powerless that it cant stop an illegal nursing home from functioning just because there are 10 people there If such nursing homes dont have have fire safety and yet there are people in them it is a disaster waiting to happen the HC saidThe court asked the BMC to file an additional affidavit detailing how many clinics or nursing homes continued to operate in the city without requisite licences and or fire safety normsIt also the BMC what it did about the patients who are undergoing treatment in such nursing homesWe expect the least you can do is to shift them to another facility Can you say this on affidavit Also how difficult is it to know who is behind it You have conducted COVID treatment in many of these unauthorized clinics so you should know who is behind them the HC saidThe HC directed BMC and the city fire department to file their respective affidavits within three weeksThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever