Sion Hospital land usurped by builders, alleges citizen committee

The Sion Hospital Bachao Committee, including well-known paediatrician Dr Santosh Karmakar, health activists, Dharavi residents, and advocates, held its first meeting on Saturday to “expose” the alleged corruption and get the plot for the hospital’s use

Mumbai: A group of citizens calling themselves the Sion Hospital Bachao Committee have alleged that a builder-politician lobby has usurped a 10-acre plot that was used by the civic-run hospital for decades.

Sion Hospital land usurped by builders, alleges citizen committee

The committee held its first meeting on Saturday afternoon to “expose” the alleged corruption and get the plot for the hospital’s use. The group includes well-known paediatrician Dr Santosh Karmakar, health activists, Dharavi residents, and advocates.

Dr Karmakar, who worked as a junior surgeon at Sion Hospital, said, “For decades, this plot had quarters for staff, doctors and class 4 employees. It also had a physiotherapy centre, and offices of various trusts/NGOs that work for patients of Sion hospital, including a Paraplegic Foundation. Three months ago, I came to know that the city survey of the plot was changed from recreational ground to residential.”

The committee alleged that the builder-politician lobby will gain upto ₹5,000 crore with this deal at the cost of the health needs of Mumbaikars.

According to the committee, the luxury residential tower is being built by the Lodha Group. It added that with Lodha founder Mangal Prabhat Lodha also being the guardian minister and in charge of handling all the affairs of the corporation, it is a direct conflict of interest.

“The said act of the guardian minister in collusion with fellow developers and officers of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) comes at the cost of substantial impact to the public healthcare facility that caters to the majority of the subjects of the city of Mumbai. Instead of giving priority to the health facilities of Mumbaikars, the land has been given for development is misfortune for Mumbaikars,” said advocate Sandeep Katke, another committe member. Katke added that the committee has sent a formal complaint to the Mumbai police’s economic offences wing and the chief minister of Maharashtra.

When contacted, Lodha said the allegations were politically motivated and baseless. “There is no shred of proof that I’m involved in the building,” he said, adding he plans to file a defamation notice against the group. The BMC did not respond to multiple attempts for comment.

Safal Developers, which were also named by the committee, said, “We unequivocally state that all allegations made against us are false.” The company added that the committee had not provided any proof to support the allegations. “...when asked for proof, the organisers responded that they will get proof in a few days. This shows that the entire exercise is without merit and for extraneous reasons.”

The committee said that even if BMC redeveloped the plot, it should have been utilised for hospital and medical education, rather than being given to a private builder to construct luxurious flats for sale.

“From the records that I went through, it is clear that the change in the city survey was made so that the plot can be given to the private developer in the name of the redevelopment project. The said parcel of land has been illegally given on lease for a period of 30 years. In no way can I see that this is in the best interest of the public and the corporation. In fact, it amounts to huge corruption,” said Dr Karmarkar.

Payal Shah, who runs a trust that provides free boarding and lodging for Sion Hospital patients’ relatives and earlier had an office in the said plot, said they were moved to a slum that’s 5 km away from the hospital.

“When I tried to investigate through RTIs, I was shocked to find the details. Why has a private builder been allowed to construct premium residential towers in barter to very minimal infrastructure that the corporation will get in return?” said Shah.