KDMC did not respond to our plaints, offers for help: Activists

Activists in Kalyan and Dombivli have complained about the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation’s (KDMC) lack of response to their complaints and offers of help.

Activists in Kalyan and Dombivli have complained about the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation’s (KDMC) lack of response to their complaints and offers of help.

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Dr Rupinder Murjani, 37, said, “During initial months of the pandemic, we had complained to the civic body about several things, but there was response. There is no rapid response team in the city. Also there is poor communication from the civic body’s side.”

Murjani and Alert Citizens Forum (Jagruk Nagrik) have also complained that the civic body’s decision to allow volunteers to carry out ward-level surveys may have come too late.

“The idea of doing ward-wise survey was suggested by us long back. The corporators are being involved now. They should have worked earlier and traced all the patients in a ward and curbed the spread,” said Sreeniwas Ghanekar, founder of Alert Citizens Forum.

Responding to the criticism, KDMC chief Vijay Suryavanshi said, “Initially, there was need to improve infrastructure and manpower. When we has just 100 cases in the city, we had 3,500 beds at the quarantine centre and also had three Covid hospitals ready to treat patients. We focused on that and managed to form a doctors’ army and also had enough beds to quarantine people. Many of the work took time due to less manpower.” He said that with the help of volunteers, KDMC plans to “aggressively trace” the spread of the infection in Kalyan and Dombivli.