CHANDIGARH: For the past one year, the municipal corporation has failed to open a newly constructed
dispensary in Sector 50 for want of doctors and the staff.
In 2014, the municipal corporation allocated the construction project of the dispensary and finished this the work in July 2017. But till date, the MC has not taken over the building, since it doesn’t have the staff to run the dispensary, for which it had allocated 7,000 square feet of land. The building was planned to have two floors but, initially, tender for only the ground floor was floated. In a year, the MC has not even taken possession of the building from the contractor. The construction cost was Rs 2.27 crore.
During a visit to the dispensary, the TOI team found the ground floor building ready but the road to the building broken. Senior citizens and residents of Sectors 50, 51, and 63 are left with no other option but to visit the Sector-16 Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH) and the Sector-32
Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for routine health check-up. The third phase of Sectors 50 to 61 has no healthcare services and residents say the civic authorities are not even bothered to deliver those.
Confronted, Sector 50 councillor Heera Negi accepted that the dispensary constructed almost a year ago was yet to be inaugurated because the MC had no doctors and staff for it. She said: “Recently, a dispensary in Sector 49 was open after signing an agreement with one of the city hospital. For similar arrangements, we are in talks with the prominent hospitals of Sectors 16 and 32, besides the PGI (Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research). We do not want to inaugurate the dispensary without having doctors for running it.”
Sector 50 resident welfare association (RWA) president
Girish Kapoor said this building was a white elephant that cost a huge amount of funds to the MC but the residents were yet to get the benefit of it. He said: “Why have the authorities not planned well and hired staff before completing the building?”
Citizen welfare society (CWS) president S S Bhardwaj said residents had submitted a memorandum to the UT adviser that if there were no dispensaries, how could the administration dream of building poly clinics and hospitals in the southern belt. People there still have to depend on dispensaries, poly clinics and hospitals in other parts of the city. He said: “The PGI, and the hospitals in Sectors 16 and 32 are already overburdened.”
CWS vice-president A C Gogia suggested that vans be equipped with testing facilities and sample collection and the crew should deliver analysis reports on next visit to the area. “These vans could be deployed on the V-5 circle roads for the convenience of senior citizens, women, and children,” he said.
