Will increase Covid-19 beds for critical patients: New TMC chief

The new commissioner of Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), Dr Vipin Sharma, who took charge on Wednesday morning, said his priority will be to ensure that hospital

The new commissioner of Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), Dr Vipin Sharma, who took charge on Wednesday morning, said his priority will be to ensure that hospital beds are made available to all critical patients and build basic infrastructure for it. He also assured that the Covid situation in the city would improve in the next few days.

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Sharma, who replaced Vijay Singhal, said the focus will be on identifying and bridging gaps and strengthening the system. He conducted a review meeting with civic officials on Wednesday morning.

Sharma was appointed as Thane civic commissioner late on Tuesday night, replacing Singhal, who was appointed merely three months ago in March.

Responding to the recent incidents of deaths due to unavailability of beds, Sharma said, “Instead of providing hospital beds to Covid patients who do not have any symptoms, the beds should be made available to those who require them. Our focus will be to create basic infrastructure, so that no critical Covid patient remains without a bed.”

A 2005 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Sharma had previously served as additional civic commissioner in Pune and collector of Latur.

In his new role, his major challenges will be to flatten the Covid curve and deal with monsoon-related diseases and calamities in Thane.

“We will work in areas where the strengthening of safety measures is needed. The focus will be on identifying the gaps and filling them. We will also carry forward the good work initiated by the previous commissioner. At present, I do not have a plan of action, and it will take at least two to three days to formulate one. The emphasis will also be on ensuring that people abide by social distancing norms, wear masks and adopt basic sanitization,” he said.

BJP demands Jaiswal’s return

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator Narayan Pawar had demanded that instead of experimenting, the state should appoint ex-commissioner of Thane, Sanjeev Jaiswal, during this time of the pandemic. “He had successfully undertaken many projects in his five-year tenure and knows the city well. This is not the time to experiment with various permutations and combinations. The new commissioner might be good, however, he has no experience with Thane city and the people here,” said Pawar.