COIMBATORE: Following the controversy over an Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) building near Vadavalli in Coimbatore corporation (CCMC), which was allegedly used as a residence by a staff nurse, the wife of a DMK functionary, the health department on Monday temporarily suspended the nurse from duty and ordered her to vacate the building immediately.
However, the health department officials TNIE spoke to claimed there was nothing wrong in using the building as quarters by their staff, an urban health nurse (UHN).
The controversy erupted on social media after some people attached to the opposition parties raised the issue of the makeover of the UPHC building into a residence by a DMK functionary. The released videos of the ‘home tour’ explain how the DMK man and his family occupied the UPHC building, which was constructed in 2019.
Dr A Mohan, City Health Officer (CHO), told TNIE that the nurse, Kanitha, was suspended from duty on Monday..
Officials said the building was constructed for UPHC for ward number 36 in the west zone of CCMC.
However, the UPHC was run at the community hall in the neighbouring area, Maharani Avenue.
Hence, the building was officially converted to a health sub-centre in 2019, where the staff nurse, Kanitha, was appointed for work. The UPHC was shifted to another permanent building (around 100m from this building) recently.
“The building has four rooms, and two each were allocated for her quarters and work. They can reside with their family in a part and must use another part for treatment, like issuance of basic medicines, frequent check-up for pregnant women, PICME registration and vaccination works, as common protocol. However, the staff nurse converted the entire building into her residence. And her husband is a functionary of the DMK. Taking advantage of these two reasons, it was politicised,” said another official, requesting anonymity.
The nurse’s husband Shyam Sundar was in the AIADMK and joined DMK a year ago, and he was appointed as deputy organiser of the DMK engineers’ wing. DMK functionaries alleged that despite there being no issue in allocating quarters to the nurses, the opposition cadre are politicising it after failing to bring him back to their party.
The nurse and her husband were not available for comment.
In a release issued by the Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, UHN Kanitha was appointed at the centre since May 2025. During inspections held on Monday, it was confirmed that they had occupied the space allocated for the centre. Departmental action has been initiated against the UHN and an explanation is sought from the CHO.
Stating that the incident is the height of the DMK’s abuse of authority, former BJP state president K Annamalai alleged that if an ordinary DMK functionary dares to encroach upon even a PHC, it means that key DMK leaders are certainly backing him.