Everyone
is made to believe that small hospitals of Dhantoli and Ramdaspeth are the
cause of woes for the congested roads and miseries of residents.
So
true !
Let
all these hospitals of these areas be closed down . No need of such monstrous
hospitals which turn the city in to hell . Let these be relocated to a nearby isolated place which is free of human inhabitation say fifty
kilometers away from Nagpur.
So
, you think that the woes of residents will end ! You are in a fools paradise ,
dear friend.
Till
40 years ago , plots admeasuring ten
thousand sq.feet were occupied by single families with less than 10 members
. These plots have been sold to property
dealers , who have constructed multi story buildings with due permission from
Nagpur Municipal Corporation ( NMC ) . Now each of these buildings have minimum
sixteen flats ( four flats each floor
for a four story building ) , each family has minimum 4 members . Thus the civic facilities meant for 10 people are
utilized by minimum sixty four persons !
None of these buildings have parking facilities enough for their own occupants , so they are forced to
park their vehicles outside their premises on the road.
Eighty
percent of these buildings have
commercial establishments in basement and ground floor , like shops ,
banks , scooter repair shops , marriage halls , car show rooms , restaurants ,
hotels , beauty parlors , saloons , STD centers , courier services etc . These
also harbour coaching , dance and Yoga classes. All of them park their vehicles on the road .
All of them throw their garbage not in front
of their own plot but the plot on
the next door .
With
these come vendors sitting on the foot paths with vegetables , washer men ,
shops ironing clothes , tailors , hot samosa wallahs , shoe , cycle, scooter
repair shops , temples , shops of daily needs , puncture repair shops , autos
waiting for passengers and off course pan and tobacco sellers . Where there is human inhabitation
, can the wine shops lag behind ?
Has
the NMC given thought about the necessities needed for so many people before giving permission for construction
of so many buildings ?
The
foot paths in Dhantoli simply do not exist. If you wish to go to a park nearby
with your toddler baby on a cart , you can not walk on the foot path but on the
roads , where already vehicles are
parked. So naturally you have to walk on almost middle of the road with a baby
with flowing traffic . Naturally , traffic slows down for your and baby’s safety.
This
all is due to improper planning by the NMC . This is also due to the greed of the property
dealers who work hand in gloves with NMC babus.
Now
let us go back to small hospitals . Let them all close down and shifted fifty
kilometers away. Now if a person has say heart attack , there is maximum
possibility of his death before reaching a hospital fifty kilometers away. A child has acute asthma , or a injury , a
pregnant lady with labor pain in the middle of the night , no problem sir , just rush fifty kilometers
away ! A person with kidney failure needing dialysis thrice a week , simply
rush that distance.
Can
you imagine the physical and mental torture a person goes through while
carrying a sick person . He only prays God that “ somehow I must reach a hospital , I must see
a doctor as early as possible , my wife has labor pain , my child has acute
asthma , sister has appendicitis , mother has brain hemorrhage or father has excruciating chest pain . All
of them may die if not taken care of immediately.”
There
are minimum five thousand employees working in these small hospitals and
clinics , 90% of them are females. They are from nearby areas. All of them will
loose jobs if these hospitals close down.
Small
hospitals means less charges. Most of these hospitals do charity and also hold
free public education and health camps.
Alternative
to private small hospital are Government
hospitals which are doing yeomen services in a most difficult situation with
resource crunch .
Other
alternative is off course corporate hospitals , which a middle class family with
limited earning can not afford without health cover insurance.
The
fact is very simple ; the doctors of Dhantoli and Ramdaspeth areas have become
easy scapegoats . Common residents are made to believe that doctors are
responsible for all their woes.
Answer
lies in stopping all new constructions with high rise more than two floors , immediate
repair of roads and foot paths , keeping foot paths free of pot holes , proper
traffic management , constructing paid
parking facilities , proper street lights and indicators , adhering strictly to
no parking norms and towing away vehicles in no parking zone with heavy fine ,
heavy fine for throwing garbage on the
road , strict actions on the developers
who put building material on roads , close down unauthorized pan and tobacco
shops . These are simple but effective ways if followed honestly.
Make
it mandatory for each developer to maintain greenery in each plot for controlling
pollution and also rain water harvesting besides solar power arrangements should be a must before giving permission for
any constructions.
Once
these have been done , then ask doctors to close down their small hospitals and
go away . After all no one needs them any way !
(
Author is nephrologist practicing in Dhantoli since last two decades)
