PCMC to set up Covid helpline for children, to be manned by school kids

On Thursday, the civic chief held a meeting with principals, teachers and parents of eight schools as well as sixteen students from class 7 to 9.

In anticipation of the third wave, the PCMC administration has also fixed responsibilities on different officials. (File photo)

In a first-of-its-kind initiative in Maharashtra, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), in anticipation of a third Covid-19 wave, has set up a child helpline, which will be run by schoolchildren.

“The objective behind setting up the child helpline is to remove fear from the minds of children,” said Municipal Commissoner Rajesh Patil on Thursday.

On Thursday, the civic chief held a meeting with principals, teachers and parents of eight schools as well as sixteen students from class 7 to 9.

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At the meeting, the commissioner said students should email questions about Covid-19 to cto@pcmcindia.gov.in. “They should provide their questionnaires to class teachers…The PCMC will also come up with a set of questions. Those students who will run the child helpline will be given information and training about Covid-19 and its treatment,” said Patil.

Among those present at the meeting included Additional Municipal Commissioner Vikas Dhakane, YCMH dean Dr Rajendra Wable, Sagar Bandalkar, Jabbin Sayyed, Pramod Sadul, Anil Gaikwad, Vaishali Nanaware, Parag Munde and Sanjeev Wakhare.

The child helpline will be run only for a limited time in a day so that it is easier to manage, Dhakane said. “We will also make arrangements to ensure that children can handle the helpline from their homes and do not have to come to PCMC office,” he added.

The PCMC administration has also fixed responsibilities on different officials. “This is being done to avoid any confusion when the third wave lands and ensure effective coordination,” the PCMC administration said.

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“…We have made arrangements to admit patients at YCM hospital, Jijamata hospital and Gharkul Covid Care Centre, where beds have been reserved for children. We have also set up a task force. We have also directed private hospitals to make necessary arrangements for admitting children,” said Patil.

According to the PCMC administration, Assistant Municipal Commissioner Balasaheb Khandekar has been asked to oversee the Covid War Room. He will be the chief coordinator. “He will coordinate with all war rooms in the city, zonal officials and medical officers. He will also have to monitor the rapid antigen and RT-PCR tests conducted in the city,” the administration said in a statement.

Assistant Municipal Commisisoner Prashant Joshi will be the information collection coordinator. “Through ‘Mee Jababdar’ app, he will collect information from testing labs, Covid Care Centres and hospitals. He will be responsible for updating information on Corona portal and ICMR portal.”

Deputy Municipal Commissioner Sandeep Khot will be the contact tracing coordinator. “His team will be responsible for tracing Covid positive patients, their address, mobile number and other information. He will have to ensure that 100 per cent contact tracing is done of those who came in contact with the infected person. He will have to update the information on the app.”

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Deputy Municipal Commissioner Mangesh Chitale will be coordinator for creating public awareness. “His team will be responsible for putting up flex and hoardings to create awareness about Covid. He will have to coordinate with all hospitals and zonal offices to create awareness. His will team will have to coordinate with all civic departments, government offices, media partners, NGOs and people’s representatives,” the PCMC administration said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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