Firhad Hakim, after a round of meeting with civic officials, on Saturday announced from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation headquarters a new vaccination schedule for different groups of people that will begin Monday.
Hakim met engineers to discuss waterlogging in some pockets of the city and took calls from Calcuttans on their woes that included a distress call from a family to hospitalise a patient whose oxygen saturation had dipped to 52.
Hakim managed to get the patient admitted to a hospital in New Town. He also promised to take up with the state health department the case for vaccinating domestic helps and caregivers for the elderly and ailing after some reporters asked him if these people should also be considered as priority groups for vaccination.
Saturday was the first time Hakim, the chairperson of the board of administrators of the CMC, attended office at the civic body’s headquarters on SN Banerjee Road since he was arrested on May 17 by the CBI and later put under house arrest on the Calcutta High Court’s order.
Hakim and three other politicians were granted bail by the high court on Friday.
On Saturday, Hakim entered office around 12.30pm and left around 6.30pm, said an official of the civic body.
“From Monday, the ward health clinics of the CMC will administer the first dose of Covid vaccines to those above 60 between 9am and 1pm,” he said. The slot between 9am and 1pm will be reserved only for those who do not book slots through the Whatsapp chatbot. It is meant for those not comfortable with technology and prefer to register in-person at a vaccination centre, said civic officials.
“From 1pm to 4pm, vaccines will be administered to those who book the slots through the Whatsapp chatbot. Besides, we will keep vaccinating the priority groups like transport workers, construction workers, lawyers, retailers in markets among others at our dedicated centres meant for the groups,” Hakim said.
He also announced that people from outside Calcutta, too, could stay in the safe homes being run by the CMC. Safe homes are where contacts of Covid-positive persons can quarantine themselves if they do not have space to isolate at home.
Following Hakim’s arrest by the CBI, Trinamul leaders as well as many common people had criticised the central agency’s decision to arrest the leaders at a time when the Covid pandemic was wrecking havoc. As the boss of the CMC and the state’s urban development and municipal affairs minister, Hakim plays a critical role in Covid management in the city and across the state.
“Hakim took calls from Calcuttans at the ‘Talk to KMC’ phone-in programme for an hour from 1pm. Later, he held a meeting with engineers of the sewerage and drainage department. He visited some places prone to waterlogging last night and asked engineers to plan how to improve drainage in the areas,” said an official of the CMC. “Later, he also attended the daily Covid meeting to take stock of the situation.”
At the ‘Talk to KMC; programme, people spoke about problems like the dangers of crumbling deserted buildings during the monsoon and waterlogging issues.
While replying to questions from reporters Hakim said: “I will talk to the health department whether domestic helps and caregivers can vaccinated as priority. This problem came before me today. I will immediately talk to the health secretary and see what can be done.”
Hakim had held virtual meetings with officials from his home ahead of the Cyclone Yaas last earlier this week. He was under house arrest at that time. The Talk to KMC programme where citizens can directly raise their grievances with the boss of the civic body could not be held last Saturday. “Hakim also signed several filed that were pending,” said the CMC official.
