BMC’S U TURN: NO QUARANTINE FACILITY AT WANKHEDE

Three days after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had written a letter to the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) asking them to handover Wankhede stadium for it to be converted into a Covid quarantine facility, the civic body has now clarified that it is not going to take over the stadium, saying that the open ground will not be useful during monsoon.

On Sunday, municipal commissioner IS Chahal said, “I am surprised by reading news about a quarantine facility centre at the stadium. We are not taking over the cricket stadium or any other open space because, in Mumbai, it sometimes rains continuously for a week. It will not be useful at all for the administration to take care of people there.”

Considering the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the city, on May 14, assistant commissioner of A ward, Chanda Jadhav, had written a letter to MCA asking them to hand over the stadium temporarily, under the guidelines issued by the BMC commissioner as per the Epidemic Act 1897. The letter further stated that the stadium will be used for emergency staff of BMC and also to quarantine asymptomatic Covid-19 patients.

After news of the letter, several residents associations from Marine Drive and neighbouring areas opposed BMC’S move. Raj Purohit, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from the area, wrote a letter to the BMC chief on Saturday demanding that he reconsider the decision.

BMC’S u-turn on the plan follows on the heels of a tweet by Shiv Sena leader and minister Aaditya Thackeray, which pointed out the challenges the site would face during monsoon. Aaditya’s tweet was in response to Sena leader Sanjay Raut’s tweet, supporting BMC’S move to take over Wankhede stadium.