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Maternity homes need care

KOLKATA, 14 June: Nearly three years have passed since the Trinamul Congress board took control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation…

KOLKATA, 14 June: Nearly three years have passed since the Trinamul Congress board took control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), but nothing has been done as yet to improve the condition of the maternity homes.
After the new civic board came to power, the KMC authorities announced  in June 2010 that every maternity home will have ambulance facility and the residential medical officers would be present at the hospitals. Also, steps would be taken to  increase the number of beds and  introduce caesarian operation facility.
After three years none of the promises has been kept. The ambulance facility has not been introduced as senior officials felt  it was not needed to keep ambulances at the hospitals as almost every social welfare club has them these days and most of the ambulance services are open for 24 hours. No step has been taken to upgrade the maternity homes and increase the number of seats.
There are 100 seats in KMC’s four maternity homes. Kidderpore maternity home has 40 seats, which is highest among the maternity homes followed by north Kolkata, Champamoni and Garden Reach, each having 20 seats. 
The Champamoni maternity home which stands on 20 cottahs of land was inaugurated by then then chief minister of  West Bengal Dr BC Roy. The maternity home looks like a haunted house after dusk with no lights in most  of the rooms. As there is no facility for caesarean operation,  women prefer to go to state run hospitals.  sns

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