State to inform Bombay HC on Friday whether it will use vacant Mahul buildings as quarantine facility

The state government and the civic body on Tuesday sought time to seek instructions and respond to a public interest litigation challenging the administration’s decision to set up treatment and quarantine centres for Covid-19 patients at the PAP colony.

The Maharashtra government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will inform Bombay high court on Friday whether they intend to use vacant buildings in the project affected persons (PAP) colony at Mahul to set up facilities for Covid-19 patients, especially inmates of Arthur Road Jail.

A file photo of Bombay high court. (HT photo)

The state government and the civic body on Tuesday sought time to seek instructions and respond to a public interest litigation challenging the administration’s decision to set up treatment and quarantine centres for Covid-19 patients at the PAP colony.

The litigation was filed by Sharda Tevar, the mother of an under-trial prisoner held at Arthur Road Jail, and the non-governmental organisation, Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan, which works with the homeless, slum dwellers and marginalised communities on housing, food and water rights issues.

The petitioners contended Chembur is the most unsuitable area in Mumbai to quarantine and treat Covid-19 patients. Mahul is linked to a variety of health issues, particularly severe respiratory problems, and the move to quarantine Covid-19 patients there could be counter-productive, the petition argued.

The petition further said people having Covid-19 have severely compromised immune systems, which manifest in severe respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia. In such a situation, sending suspected Covid-19 cases to Mahul would defeat the purpose of quarantining them and could accelerate respiratory ailments, and even prove to be fatal.

“Indeed, others who have been rehabilitated to Mahul in the past have reported a series of severe respiratory ailments like asthma and tuberculosis within a short period of moving to Mahul,” the petition said.

The petitioners’ counsel, Ronita Bector, told the bench that three judicial forums have declared PAP colony to be uninhabitable because of the high level of industrial pollution and toxic air quality, and the high court had restrained the state government in September 2019 from shifting any slum dwellers or project affected person to the colony, also known as Eversmile Complex.