Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray stayed the decision to hand over 100 flats in MHADA buildings to the Parel-based Tata Memorial Hospital to accommodate patients and their relatives as well as caretakers.
On Wednesday, June 23, Maharashtra Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad confirmed the decision.
This comes after Shiv Sena MLA from Sewri Ajay Chaudhary wrote to CM Uddhav Thackeray and said that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the residents of those two MHADA buildings feared for their health if cancer patients and their relatives moved in.
Moreover, CM Uddhav Thackeray has also directed the Principal Secretary, Housing Department to submit a report in this regard, reports suggested.
Chaudhary in the letter said that 700 Maharashtrian families stay in the vicinity objected to the disturbance created by outsiders arriving there temporarily.
He further said that MHADA's decision to provide 100 flats to the relatives of cancer patients has created an atmosphere of fear among the residents.
Citing these reasons, Chaudhary in the letter demanded immediate postponement of the decision, and instead, the cancer patients and relatives must be given all 100 flats in an MHADA building in Bhoiwada, near the hospital.
There are MHADA tenements in the Bandra-Kurla Complex. One entire building can be given to the hospital, but not where locals are residing, he added.
Chaudhary also said his wife succumbed to cancer four years ago, and he set up a trust in her name with his own money and is helping the needy cancer patients to get medical treatment.
Last month, this initiative to allot 100 flats in buildings of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to the hospital was taken by Awhad.
The keys of the flats were handed over to the hospital authorities in May by NCP president Sharad Pawar, whose party shares power with the Shiv Sena and Congress in the state.
Also Read: Thane Municipal Corporation to set up a Cancer Hospital at Rustomjee Building
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