Bombay HC praises BMC for its vision in containing virus

Justice Kulkarni tells Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to learn from BMC

The Bombay High Court bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni, on Wednesday, showered praises at the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for its ‘extraordinary vision’ and efforts to arrest COVID-19. The court said that other municipal corporations in the state must follow the vision of BMC.

The bench was seized with a bunch of public interest litigations (PILs), highlighting the COVID-19 crisis in Maharashtra and Mumbai.

On Wednesday, when the matter came up for hearing, senior counsel Anil Sakhare for BMC, submitted a short affidavit before the judges. The bench noted that there has been a reduction in active as well as daily cases in the city. "On Tuesday, we recorded around 954 cases. We have come down from 1000 plus cases now," Sakhare submitted.

At this, the judges noted that there have been more beds lying vacant in civicrun hospitals. "Can't these beds and facilities be made available for people from adjoining cities/districts?" Justice Kulkarni questioned.

At this, Sakhare responded, "We are already providing such facilities. We aren't asking people from which city or state they are coming from? We are only giving them the requisite treatment." "We are now gearing up for the third wave to ensure that children are provided better facilities," the senior counsel added.

Having heard the submissions, Justice Kulkarni told advocate Abhijit Kulkarni, appearing for Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to learn from BMC.

"See the extraordinary vision and pattern of BMC. There are so many hospitals and medical colleges run by BMC in Mumbai. Each one of them has a bed capacity of about 1,000 to 2,000 beds." Justice Kulkarni said.

"This is an extraordinary vision. I guess no other municipal corporation in this state has such a vision. And that is the reason BMC controlled this pandemic and is still dealing with it properly," the judge added.