Mumbai: BMC to clear dues of over Rs 20 crore to Wadia hospitals

The issue regarding Wadia hospital was discussed in the Standing Committee meeting on Tuesday. File pic

The Standing Committee chairman has ordered the BMC administration on Tuesday to pay the dues it owes Wadia hospital. While Wadia has claimed that BMC owes it dues of Rs 137 crore, the civic administration insists it owes only Rs 21 crore and will pay this soon. The Wadia Hospitals group stopped admitting patients last week due to lack of funds as the state government and subsequently the BMC stopped payment of grants.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has ordered setting up of a committee to look into alleged irregularities at the hospital, Mayor Kishori Pednekar said on Tuesday. The CM also ordered transfer of R46 crore to the hospital so that suspended services can be resumed, she added.

The issue was discussed in the Standing Committee meeting on Tuesday. "Opposition leader Ravi Raja had raised the issue on December 4 and sought a solution. If the administration had acted on the issue immediately it would not have gotten so serious," said Vishakha Raut, corporator of the Shiv Sena.

"If the administration knew about the irregularities like increase in beds, bed charges, payment issues etc, why didn't it take action?" said Raja. Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC, told the committee that as per the discussion between BMC and Wadia management, BMC is paying subsidy in four equal parts as per the last financial year balance-sheet. "The civic body has paid dues up to September. The next quarterly payment is due in January which is R14 crore and there is another R7 crore pending. There aren't any other dues," clarified Kakani.

Committee Chairman Yashwant Jadhav ordered the administration to pay the remaining dues in a day and Kakani gave the nod for this.

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