Dispensary turned into store room

Gangadhar S Patil

Bangalore, April 15: Malavalli Chikkanna Charities, a charitable trust that donated its land to the Karnataka government in Sheshadripuram, Bangalore to build a dispensary, is reclaiming it as it was converted into a store room by the government 10 years back.

One of the trustees who requested anonymity said, “We donated the land for the poor but the government is using it as a store room.” He added that they had been requesting the government to resume the dispensary or hand it over to them so that they could run it.

The trust donated its land in the year 1950 and the dispensary was built in 1957 by the health department on a land spread across 3,000 square feet in central Bangalore. There were two doctors along with four other staff members to attend the patients.

“We had to shift the dispensary to Chickjalla on Sarjapur Road due lack of patients and high operating costs. The people living in the area are relatively rich so they generally do not visit this dispensary,” said an official of the health department who refused to disclose his name.

Dr M Thimappa, the district health officer of Bangalore urban, said that the dispensary was shifted to some other place as a part of a policy. “All the dispensaries working under Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) were shifted to bring them under the Zilla Panchayat as it funded them. Dispensaries in Kalasipaliya, Minerva circle and Jayanagar were also shifted 10 years back,” he said.

The BBMP is the municipal corporation of the south-Indian city of Bangalore.
Mani M, a resident of Sheshadripuram, said people now go to K C General Hospital, another government hospital in the same area, for all kinds of treatment. 

“Many patients used to visit the dispensary as it was in the centrally located. But now they are forced to go to hospitals in far away places,” said the trustee.

Lakshmi D, a resident of Risaldar slum, who has been living there since 1980, said that he used to go to that dispensary earlier, but now, as it is closed, he visits another nearby dispensary nearby.

US offers help for earthquake victims in China

Washington, April 15: The US has expressed its deepest condolences to victims of the massive earthquake in China that has so far claimed over 600 lives and offered help in the rebuilding process.

Manual scavenging still practiced

Bangalore, April 15: Even after the ban on the practice of manual scavengers, the Karnataka government has rehabilitated 287 manual scavengers in the state since 2006 till January this year.