The Hindu 17.03.2010
Night shelters proposed for destitute senior citizens
Staff Reporter
— Photo: M.Vedhan
Facility awaited:Aged people living on footpaths will soon get to stay in the night shelters proposed by the Chennai Corporation.
CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation plans to start night shelters for elderly persons living on footpaths.
Announcing this at a council meeting on Monday, Mayor M. Subramanian said that last year, the civic agency set up night shelters for streetchildren. The objective of the proposed project is to provide a secure and hygienic shelter for deserted senior citizens. More facilities would be offered at the two geriatrics centres of the civic body, including yoga training.
The civic body would also explore the feasibility of constructing a 200-bed communicable diseases hospital in south Chennai. At its CDH in Tondiarpet, a 20-bed de-addiction centre would be established.
Besides setting up two eye testing centres and two dialysis centres each in north and south Chennai, two diabetic centres would be established in the Corporation's blood testing laboratories.
Blood bank services, now available at the two emergency obstetric centres, would be set up in eight other zones. All 93 health posts would get television sets worth a total of Rs.5 lakh.
The civic body also plans to provide free meals to women after their delivery and until their discharge from the hospitals. Compact beds with nets for the new borns would be provided.
As an attempt to curb rat and mosquito menace, the civic body plans to launch a rat control programme. It would devise a master plan along with the Centre for Research in Medical Entomology, Madurai, using advanced technology of ovitrap apart from procuring 20 more vehicle-mounted fogging machines to curb mosquito breeding.
Ten more mortuary vans and 20 freezer boxes would be procured by Corporation and a dedicated helpline for accessing the free services established, Mr.Subramanian said.
Vaccination for cervical cancer to adolescent girls and iron sucrose injection to pregnant women were some of other healthcare proposals that figured in the Corporation budget.
