The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday closed a public interest litigation petition seeking a direction to the Madurai Corporation Commissioner to provide 10 lakh litres of water every day to Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) here. The court said there was no necessity for it to pass such an order in view of various steps taken by the Dean of the hospital to meet its requirements.
Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran recorded the submissions made by Dean M.R. Vairamuthuraju in his communication to Special Government Pleader M. Govindan and said the hospital administration had already written a letter to the Corporation Commissioner on July 1 requesting diversion of eight lakh litres of water to the hospital every day under Melur Comprehensive Water Supply Scheme.
In the communication sent to the SGP, the Dean had said the GRH was the second largest government hospital in the State and the largest in southern districts. Though the hospital had only 2,518 beds, more than 3,000 patients were treated as inpatients at any given point of time apart from 8,000 outpatients. The hospital’s water requirement was really high in view of the enormous number of patients, attendants and visitors. Around 40,000 litres of water was being realised on a daily basis from 12 bore wells dug on the hospital campus and somewhere between three to four lakh litres of water supplied by the Corporation through drinking water pipelines, apart from water supplied through 10 to 15 tankers with a capacity of 10,000 litres each. Further, six Reverse Osmosis plants had also been installed in the hospital.
In so far as the facilities in the hospital’s Trauma Care Centre was concerned, the Dean said five bore wells in the centre supplied approximately 40,000 litres of water every day and the Corporation was supplying 10,000 litres once in three days, apart from sending five to eight tankers. The centre also had two R.O. plants.
“Hot water facilities are available in the modern kitchen and paediatric ward of this hospital.... I also submit that a detailed letter requesting to divert eight lakh litres drinking water per day to this hospital from Melur Comprehensive Water Supply Scheme, so as to solve water scarcity permanently, has been sent to the Corporation Commissioner through a letter dated July 1, 2016,” the Dean added.
“We’ve sought eight lakh litres a day from Melur Comprehensive Water Supply Scheme”
