Admn finally wakes up to sanitation mess at GB Pant Hospital

Rifat Mohidin

Srinagar, July 29

Eleven months after the September floods, the administration of GB Pant Hospital has finally woken up to the mess on the premises and carried out a major sanitation drive to remove the flood-hit infrastructure today.

The damaged furniture and muck was lying near the ground floor of the hospital for the past 11 months. Sources say the sanitation and repair work which has been going on in the hospital for the past several months has been the least priority of the administration.

“The administration has not been paying attention to the sanitation as the muck and damaged furniture has been lying in the backside of the hospital not only after the floods but for the past four years. Nobody till now paid attention to it which could have become the cause of diseases,” a source from the hospital administration said.

The sanitation drive was conducted in a joint effort with the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and the administration of the hospital.

GB Pant Hospiatl is a major hospital in Valley that caters to the needs of nearly 20 lakh children. Though a little bit of renovation was done after the floods, the muck and the damaged furniture was lying dumped inside the hospital occupying the space for around 200 beds.

The muck and damaged infrastructure had occupied a lot of space and we were witnessing a huge rush of patients, said an official source.

Being the only paediatric hospital in the Valley, the authorities concerned have also failed to install a sewage treatment plant for the past three years which has led to overflow of sewage around the hospital leading to the mess.

“The government has now approved Rs 3 crore for the sewage treatment plant for which work will start soon. Till then we are working on a temporary drainage plan that connects to the main drain to carry the flow of sewage,” a source said.

Hospital attendants said they were hopeful that the new administration in the hospital would take steps for its betterment.

“I have been in the hospital for the past 10 days. It was stinking, but now I am witnessing the change as it is being cleaned and walls are being painted. This is a good step. This should have been done immediately after the floods. It seems that the administration was sleeping till now,” said an attendant, Hashmat Ahmad, from Budgam.

Superintendent of the hospital Dr Shafaqat Khan said the administration was working hard to improve the conditions of the hospital to develop it into a model hospital in the state.

“We want to develop it into a model hospital in the start at minimal expenditure,” he added.