Mumbai: Drug, sex den set to return to being maternity home soon

The WCWC team and police at the hospital. Pic/ Satej Shinde

A week after mid-day reported that a maternity home in Goregaon East, lying vacant for five years, is being used by anti-social elements for illegal activities, Women and Child Welfare Committee (WCWC) chief Sindhu Masurkar, civic officials and the police visited the hospital on Tuesday to take stock of the situation.

Executive Health Officer (EHO) Dr Padmaja Keskar, local ward officer Chanda Jadhav and BJP corporator Priti Satam accompanied Masurkar to the Gokuldham Maternity Home. Keskar claimed the hospital would be up and running in three months.

The CWC team seen inspecting the premises. Pic/ Satej Shinde

When our correspondent visited the three-storey building last week, beer bottles, drugs paraphernalia, empty condom packets and cigarettes were strewn everywhere. Speaking to mid-day, Satam, who had raised the issue with the WCWC, said, "Before their visit on Tuesday, some officials from the BMC suddenly arrived at the maternity home and cleaned the premises. But, the broken doors and windows were enough to prove that it become a miscreants' den. EHO Keskar has promised to start the facility in three months."

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An official checks the state of the broken bathrooms

Satam had said last week that she had been pursuing the issue with the local ward and health department for four months, but to no avail.

A BMC official said, "We will speed up the process of starting the maternity home and appoint a contractor to run the hospital under the PPP scheme."

Last week, EHO Keskar had said, "We are planning to develop the hospital under PPP. It was delayed because the PPP policy was being revised. We will issue tenders soon."