MoH threatens of punishing guilty

Aurangabad, Oct 12:

The municipal officer of health (MoH) at Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), Dr Paras Mandlecha, has intensified the inquiry after a private doctor accused the civic health section personnel of harassing him for the past 11 months. The MoH has ordered to serve show-cause notices to the health personnel responsible for issuing permissions to private hospitals and renewing their registrations etc. Mandlecha underlined that stern action will be taken against the persons guilty and if their explanation is found unsatisfactory.

It so happened that one city's private doctor met the MoH and narrated his grievance telling the harassment meted out by the AMC's health section and town planning section. He told that he had applied for permission to start a hospital in December 2020. However, the civic health section's personnel are treating him and his staff like an accused of the past 11 months. He also underlined that they are also not replying to why the decision has not been taken on his file. He submitted a written complaint to the MoH. Hence the show cause notices were served to the clerk and programme officer on Monday and their replies are expected on receive on Wednesday.

Mandlecha expressed his concern saying the incident came to light when the doctor met him in person. In the past 11 months, the particular doctor's file was not placed before me. We will not tolerate any illegal practices and will take stern action against those found guilty, he said.

According to the AMC health personnel, the section has received 48 proposals between January and September 2021. Of which, the permission has been granted to 17; 15 files had been set aside as their documentations were incomplete. There are four proposals from Satara-Deolai; seven proposals had been forwarded to the Town Planning section, one file is pending and four are under proceedings.

There are 550 small and big private hospitals in the city. Each hospital has to seek permission before starting it. They had to obtained no-objection certificates (NoCs) from health and fire brigade sections, apart from struggle to levy the commercial tax on the hospitals.