TMC’s ‘aapla dawakhana’ facilities shut since Aug, staff unpaid for months

‘Aapla Dawakhana’, an ambitious project implemented by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) to provide free healthcare services to the urban poor in Thane, has been shut down since August. The staff members, including nurses, housekeeping, etc., have not received their salaries for the past six months.

- Kaptan Mali

‘A delegation of aapla dawakhana staff met Thane MLA Sanjay Kelkar on Friday to share their grievances and sought his intervention. Many of these 40 clinics branded as “Vandaniya Balasaheb Thackeray Aapla Dawakhana” have now been converted into commercial shops, forcing the poor to seek costlier healthcare services from private hospitals. Kelkar blamed the contractor. “The TMC had awarded the contract to operate 40 aapla dawakhana clinics toa Bengaluru-based firm, Med-OnGo. However, the company shut down the facilities in ‘August without payi