Following the abduction of a three-day-old baby from Sion Hospital, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has geared up to implement strict rules to regulate number of visitors in the civic hospitals. The baby was abducted a week after the civic body had decided to beef up security in civic hospitals. “The incident happened not beacuse of the lapse of security measures from our side. Can this kind of crime be stopped using metal detectors, scanners and such other equipment? The answer is no. We strictly need to maintain the crowd entering our hospitals,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Kishore Gajbhiye.The civic body will control the number of visitors coming with each patient. The BMC had written a letter to all the hospitals a month ago asking them to restrict the number of visitors coming with patients to one, but admitted that the rule had not been effectively implemented. “Mostly many visitors accompany a patient. It becomes really difficult for us to control and manage the crowd. This incident has proved that we need to be more strict. It request the people not to overcrowd the hospitals,” said Gajbhiye.According to Gajbhiye, security guards have got discretionary powers to control crowd but they have to relax this rule when faced by patients and their family. “We understand that as a family you need to be with your loved ones. But you need to understand our dilemma too. Our guards cannot control a large crowd,” said Gajbhiye. “The incident occurred precisely due to this reason. The security guards should have stopped or checked her as it’s not very often that a newly born kid is discharged from the hospital,” Gajbhiye said.Keeping the incident in mind, the civic body is all set to beef up its security to another level. “We’ve CCTVs at the entrance of the building, but now we will install more CCTVs in strategic positions to keep an eye on any unusual activity or person. We will also deploy more security personnel,” said Gajbhiye. However, he also said that these steps would be futile, if patients and visitors didn’t comply with the rules. “Though we admit a security lapse, we hope parents and other visitors also take charge. After the incident, hopefully, the patients will cooperate with authorities, if they stop more than one person to go inside with the patient,” said Gajbhiye.Meanwhile, the police have released sketches of the victim based on the bereaved mother’s description. “We’re requesting people who recognise the woman to contact us,” said DCP S Bhaviskar of Zone IV. “The police will be searching the area around the hospital. We are meeting people and doctors who were present in the hospital at the time of the kidnapping. We believe that she must have visited a gynecologist,” said Bhaviskar.Bhavisker said, “The woman may not have children and must have stolen the baby.” Responding to the story that such thefts of babies have happened in the past in the hospital, Bhaviskar said the baby might not be kidnapped by child traffickers.”(With inputs from Aditya Paul)
