COVID centres in housing societies: federation opposes

The Thane District Co-operative Housing Federation on Wednesday opposed the Thane Municipal Corporation's decision to declare clubhouses and community halls of housing societies as COVID Care Centres (CCC). In a letter to commissioner Vijay Singhal, federation chairman Sitaram Rane said the TMC should have consulted representatives of housing societies and the federation before taking the decision.

In the main, the federation took exception to the directive that housing societies themselves will bear the expenses of running the CCC. Setting up a CCC on the premises of housing societies was not an issue, but the federation was opposed to the guidelines for such centers prescribed by the TMC, Rane said.

As per the TMC, society members who have mild coronavirus symptoms can be shifted to CCCs on the premises. But the Federation said that the requirement that societies themselves should arrange doctors and other trained staff, and patient or his or her family should bear the expenses was unreasonable.

There was no provision in the Co-operative Societies' Act for the society to bear such expenses if the patient or his or her family failed to pay up, he said. Rane, who is a member of the BJP, also expressed fear that managing committees of societies may face prosecution if there are any lapses in the running of the center.

Hence it should not be made mandatory for societies to run COVID Care Centres, he added.