Dengue in Malwani puts the fear of death in residents, 11 take ill

Dengue in Malwani puts the fear of death in residents, 11 take ill

Maitri Porecha / DNA

December 7, 3:46 IST
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Mumbai: At least 11 people from a Mhada residential colony in Malwani, Malad (west) have contracted dengue over the last month. Of these, three are from one family, one of whom died on Wednesday.

With the sudden spurt in cases, residents of the colony have demanded that the municipal corporation pull up its act.

The deceased, Tariq Jafri, 32, his wife Shakila, 30 and their 4-year-old daughter baby Tasneema had been down with dengue for the last one week.

Doctors at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital in Andheri, where Jafri had been admitted said that he died due to ‘dengue shock syndrome’ on Wednesday. The syndrome, said doctors, can kill a person in just three days.

His daughter is in a critical condition in the hospital’s paediatric intensive care unit while his widow Shakila, 30, took discharge against medical advice on Wednesday to attend her husband’s funeral, said hospital sources.

The hospital’s chief executive officer, Dr Ram Narain, said that Jafri had been admitted to the intensive care in an extremely critical condition.

A neighbour of Tariq, Akhtar Khan, said that the Tariq died, two other people from the vicinity had been admitted to Siddartha hospital in Goregaon, which is run by the municipal corporation.

Nearly 35,000 people live in 6,000 ground-plus-one tenements constructed by MHADA in the locality. Local corporator Gulistan Shaikh said that more awareness of dengue was the need of the hour in the locality. “We also need to distribute the insecticide teme phos to residents to pre-empt the rise of dengue,” said Shaikh.

Dr Mangala Gomare, head of the BMC’s epidemiology department, said they were presently distributing the insecticide only in slum areas.

 

Boy crushed in front of mom

Mumbai: A six-year-old boy died on the spot when a BEST bus driver moonlighting as a private school bus driver ran him over in a no-entry zone at the T-junction near the Kandivli Recreation Club around 12.30pm after school ended for the day on Wednesday.
His mother who tried to rescue him fractured her right leg.

Lata Naidu, 35, had picked her son, Gautam, a Class I student of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vidyalaya, up after school hours at 12.25pm. The two were crossing a vehicle no-entry road outside the school when the boy wriggled free and ran across. The mother ran after him. Just then, Jokhanlal Yadav, 54, a BEST bus driver who had been temporarily hired by a travel bus agency to run a private school bus, drove the vehicle with 81 students of the school onto the road.

“The mother and son were not aware that the bus had entered the no-entry zone. Gautam was running while crossing the road when he was hit by the bus,” said Hareshwar Pimple, senior inspector at the Kandivli police station. He died on the spot. “Lata, who was chasing him, was also hit by the bus and fractured her right leg,” added Pimple.
As soon as he hit the boy and his mother, Yadav fled the spot. Both Lata and Gautam were rushed to the Bhagwati Hospital in Borivli.

The police arrested Yadav at his house at the BEST quarters in Malwani and booked him under sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 338 (causing grievous hurt through an act endangering the life or personal safety of others) and 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian penal code as well as under relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act.

They also sent him for a medical test to ascertain if he was drunk behind the wheel at the time of the accident.

Yadav was recently hired by a private school bus contractor, Mehta Travel Bus Agency, after its driver went on medical leave.

DNA Correspondent

December 6, 5:51 IST

http://www.dnaindia.com/mobile/report.php?n=1774028

Many can't afford school bus facility

Mumbai: The bus that ran over the six-year-old Gautam Naidu in Kandivli was not meant to ferry children to school. It was a private, contract run bus that did not have permission to ferry schoolchildren.

It was hired by those parents who could not afford the bus service provided by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel School.The safety norms prescribed by the transport authorities do not apply to such 'illegal' buses.

The Kandivli school offers bus service only for pre-primary section. The extra fees for bus facility starts from Rs600 a month depending on the area, many parents belonging to a low-income background and are unable to afford it.

Sangeeta Srivastava, principal and chief academic officer of Kandivli Education Society that runs the school, said: "We had offered parents a choice to hire BEST bus service, but they preferred a cheaper alternative. Often as many as 150 children are packed into a bus."

The School Bus Owners' Association said such "illegal" buses continue to run as they are hand in gloves with the transport authorities. Unlike regular school buses, such buses do not have any agreement with the school and do not have a permit to carry schoolchildren.

"Every school has at least 8 to 10 such illegal buses, since they are cheaper. But these buses flout all safety norms, yet no action is taken against them," said Santosh Shetty, school bus owner in Navi Mumbai.

Anil Garg, president of the SBOA, said principals are reluctant to sign agreements with regular school buses as it puts the responsibility of safety on them. "Illegal buses are plying across the city because schools can shirk responsibility in case of a mishap," he said.

Puja Pednekar / DNA

December 6, 4:10 IST

http://www.dnaindia.com/mobile/report.php?n=1774017