Mumbai, Oct 16 (IANS): Over 23 lakh people have availed free treatment at the Balasaheb Thackeray Aapla Dawakhana – a chain of clinics run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the last one year, and 13 more facilities are being added this month, an official said here on Monday.

The clinics, offering a wide variety of medical treatment, medicines, check-ups, etc, were started on October 2, 2022 to serve the people, especially those from the weaker sections of society.

To mark the occasion, Mumbai Guardian Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha and top BMC officials like Dr. Sudhakar Shinde, Sanjay Kurhade, Daksha Shah and others launched a public awareness song on the scheme.

The song has been composed by Dr. Sanjay Raj with lyrics by Sandeep Surve, and is sung by two medicos Dr. Rahul Joshi and Dr. Neha Rajpal, and a toddler, Dia Wadkar.

The Minister said that in the last fortnight, six more clinics were added and seven more will be included in the next two weeks, taking the total number of these facilities to 200 in the city, including 28 polyclinics.

“To enable citizens to give their responses/feedback, we are placing notification boxes at all these clinics. People are being provided free medical check-ups, medication, blood tests, and other specialist services through polyclinics and diagnostic centres.

“These comprise departments like general physician, dental, gynaecology, paediatric, dermatology, ophthalmology, etc, in which specialists and experts from the fields concerned also participate,” he said.