FPJ Dialogue: Decentralising the system helped tackle COVID, says Suresh Kakani

COVID-19 was an opportunity for the BMC to learn to handle pressure and rope everyone in to understand what measures needed to be taken to control an outbreak in slum areas and across Mumbai, former additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani has told The Free Press Journal.

Kakani was sharing his overall experience of handling three waves of the pandemic. He said decentralising the system played a major role in the city’s fight against the pandemic.

Who is Suresh Kakani?

An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 2003 batch, Kakani also worked in various government departments and as managing director of Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation. He was instrumental in the successful operation of Shirdi International Airport, the commercialisation of Nagpur Airport, the promotion of Purandar (Pune), Amravati and Chandrapur airports and the completion of civil aviation policy.

Former AMC shares experience of handling pandemic

In December 2019, he was appointed additional municipal commissioner of the BMC, where he led the Health Department and played a crucial role in handling all three waves of COVID.

“Field work was necessary to know people’s problems. When COVID started the whole nation was under lockdown and reaching people was getting difficult. Officials from each department were called for a meeting and we decided we have to be on the field to make policies and measures to tackle COVID outbreak in Mumbai,” Kakani said.

The slums of Worli, Govandi, Mankhurd, Shivaji Nagar, Dahisar, Mahim and Dharavi reported the most deaths during the pandemic, he said. So power was delegated to the ward level so those on the field could take decision, Kakani said.

“It was a challenging position, but I believe that every disaster throws up opportunities for upgradation, improvement and management of the system. We could integrate all the health sectors and focus on key areas like strengthening the primary sector, and upgrading the secondary sector by providing good healthcare facilities so that more manpower can be available and more surgeries can be performed,” Kakani said.

BMC should make continuous efforts to sustain the health systems and emphasise research, he said.

‘Disaster Friend’ concept succeeded

In case of an emergency in Mumbai, the person at the scene of the incident is the first person to run for help. Therefore, it was felt necessary to train Mumbaikars to save their own lives in emergencies and to rescue those trapped in accidents. For this, it was decided to implement the concept of ‘Aapda Mitra’ and Mumbaikars have given a lot of response. People are also getting responses to the concept of disaster friend. Therefore, Karkar has appealed that every person should take the initiative to become a disaster friend.