21 February,2011 06:44 AM IST | | Priyanka Vora
Asks all four mental hospitals to produce bills to clear them this financial year
A week after MiD DAY reported how the Thane Mental Hospital was unable to clear its utility and grocery bills running into crores of rupees because of paucity of funds, the state government seems woken up from its slumber.
On Friday, Jayant Bantia, the Secretary for Public Health and Family Welfare, called a meeting with the heads of all four mental hospitals in the state at the Mantralaya to take a stock of the situation.
After the government promised grants, the hospital can also start work towards upgrading its services
"We had a meeting with the Secretary and he has asked us to submit all the pending bills to his office immediately. We are told that the bills will be cleared in this financial year only," said DR S Kumavat, the Medical Superintendent of Thane Mental Hospital.
MiD DAY had reported (Mental hospital faces funds crunch migraine, dated Feb 14) that the hospital is yet to pay Rs 50 lakh to Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) for power; it hasn't been able to clear water bills running into lakhs of rupees to Thane Municipal Corporation for the past three year.
Same is the case with grocery bills, which runs into a whopping two crore rupees. In fact the MSEB had even slapped a notice to the hospital for this non payment of the bills.
It should not be forgotten that this is the very hospital which the state plans to modify on the lines of Nimhans, a premier mental health institute in Bangalore.
The MSEB had cut off the electricity supply to the facility last January because of non-payment of bills. Only after the MSEB cut off the supply, the state immediately arranged for Rs 6 lakh the very day after which the services were restored.
The very next day the government sanctioned Rs 35 lakh for the long pending electricity bills.
Jayant Bantia, the Secretary for Public Health and Family Welfare, confirmed that a meeting was organised.
"We want to pay off the bills in this financial year so we had called the meeting."
However, Dr Kumavat said, "Once the pending bills are cleared off, we can work towards the soft changes that we want to bring in the hospital to upgrade our services. We are relived that the government has promised us grants."
