The Chennai Corporation will put up details of abandoned, mentally ill persons in the city on its website, said Mayor M.Subramanian.
Addressing mediapersons on Friday after inspection of the measures taken to rehabilitate the mentally ill at the Communicable Diseases Hospital (CDH) in Tondiarpet, he said that a number of persons with mentally illness, from other parts of the country, had been identified within Chennai Corporation limits.
The details of those persons were being collected, he said. The data on the website would include photographs of the mentally ill, the language they speak, their names and other details they may furnish.
Mr.Subramanian urged the employees of the hospital to cooperate wholeheartedly in the civic body's initiative as “it was a great service to the people with mental illness and their families.”
He also announced an incentive of Rs.500 for CDH employees who were part of the project.
People from various parts of the State have started to come to the CDH in order to trace their relatives who went missing, said an employee of the hospital.
The Chennai Corporation had already identified around 150 mentally ill persons who had been wandering in the streets and housed them temporarily in the Communicable Diseases Hospital in Tondiarpet.
The persons would be housed in a separate enclosure on the premises of the hospital till May 3.
They are being given a hair cut, de-worming tablets and are screened for diseases.
The civic body has estimated that there could be around 500 mentally ill persons wandering in the city.
The Corporation's Health Department officials would work on the required legal intervention by May 3 before sending them to the Institute of Mental Health for treatment.
Mr. Subramanian denied the allegation that inpatients were sent home in order to house the mentally ill persons and said that Corporation was aware of the significance of the CDH in controlling communicable diseases.
