– Shakilur Rahman
Mumbai, Feb. 5: After a two-year-long struggle APCR Maharashtra won the Hakim Ajmal Khan Municipality Hospital lawsuit. While giving the verdict on PIL No. 24/2022 filed by APCR Maharashtra, the Mumbai High Court bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Arif S. Doctor directed Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) to comply with Resolution No. 750 on which the hospital’s foundation was laid to run it for common people accordingly. The court further ruled that free medicines and complete treatment should be provided for the poor and backward classes who don’t have ration cards.
The High Court told the plaintiff that if the hospital didn’t comply with the High Court’s decision, it should approach the Court again. It also said a complaint should be lodged with the government department regarding financial irregularities and corruption in the construction of the hospital. If the concerned department does not take action against the irregularities, APCR can approach the court.
In 2021, when APCR Maharashtra noticed the delay and scam in the Kausa under-construction hospital, detailed information was obtained with the help of RTI activist Hanif Kamdar from Mumbra. The RTI revealed that first, the cost of the hospital building in 2009 was estimated at Rs 10 crore, then it was increased to Rs 29 crore and for the third time in 2014, the work started with the approval of a tender worth Rs 54 crore. But Shivna Corporation couldn’t complete the construction work even in eight years by 2021 and the estimated cost increased from Rs 54 crore to Rs 129 crore.
In April 2022, APCR District President Thane, Advocate Niaz Ahmed Shaikh and his advocate friends and RTI activist Mohammad Hanif Kamdar, with the help of Advocate Mohammad Nawaz Hindade and Advocate Ghazala Parveen, under the supervision of APCR National President as well as Senior Advocate Yusuf Hatim Muchhala, filed a PIL in the Mumbai High Court. In ten years, from 2014 to 2024, the hospital construction work has not been completed; rather it hasn’t been started completely. During this period, the construction cost has reportedly reached Rs 200 crore.
Surprisingly, when APCR filed the PIL in April 2022, TMC, to mislead the court, transferred the Jachcha Khana, situated in front of Mumbra station, to the under-construction Ajmal Khan Hospital in Kausa. Further, TMC tried to change this public hospital into a private hospital with expensive fees, but APCR foiled all the tricks of TMC. In September, the High Court constituted a three-member expert committee comprising a doctor, a civil engineer and a senior lawyer to investigate the matter.
The committee submitted the investigation report before the High Court in October last. In the final decision, the court has directed that the hospital be a public hospital and people who do not have ration cards can also get free treatment and medicines. The High Court also removed the obstacles that stood at the starting of the hospital.
