MADURAI: Taking a serious view of the dilapidated condition of a primary health centre (PHC) in RS Mangalam of Ramanathapuram, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the state health secretary to appear before the court through video conferencing on Thursday.
A Bench of justices S Vaidyanathan and D Bharatha Chakravarthy gave the direction after perusing a report filed by the Principal District Judge of Ramanathapuram on the poor state of the building, in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by I Kalanthar Ashik Ahamed of Ramanathapuram seeking to construct a new building for the PHC.
Ahamed stated in his petition that the roof and walls of the PHC have become damaged due to a lack of proper maintenance and are on the verge of collapsing. This poses a huge risk to the staff and the public who visit the centre for treatment, he added and requested the authorities to demolish the building and construct a new one.
The court had initially directed the Principal District Judge to inspect and file a report on the condition of the PHC building. In the previous hearing on June 26, the then-division bench perused the report filed by the PDJ and criticised the officials that a very serious attempt has been made to bury the facts and make it appear as if the building is in good condition. When the case was heard again on Tuesday, the current bench summoned the health secretary.