Doctors Resign at Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Hospital After Corporator Attack on Staff

Kalyan-Dombivli public health institutions were thrown into turmoil when two doctors at Shastri Nagar Hospital resigned to protest an attack on medical staff by a Shiv Sena corporator, raising immediate concerns about safety and patient care at a key municipal facility. On the political front, Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena announced its backing for Shinde Sena in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation, an alignment that surprised observers but was swiftly contained within the wider coalition framework by Dr Shrikant Shinde.

Doctors Walk Out of Shastri Nagar Hospital After Corporator Assault on Staff

Two doctors at Shastri Nagar Hospital in Kalyan-Dombivili, Thane district, submitted their resignations following a violent attack on medical staff by Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Mhatre. The complainant in the case, Dr Vaibhav Salunkhe, and a witness to the assault, Dr Srushti Baviskar, formally quit their positions as a direct act of protest against what they viewed as unacceptable aggression within a government health facility. Their resignations were not driven by administrative disputes but were a deliberate public stand against the attack, signaling the depth of grievance among the medical community at the hospital. The decision by both doctors — one having directly filed the complaint and the other having witnessed the incident — to forgo their employment rather than continue in silence speaks to the seriousness with which they regarded the episode. The attack attributed to corporator Mhatre, a political representative within the municipal structure, placed the incident in a particularly charged context, raising questions about the accountability of elected officials toward public sector workers. Shastri Nagar Hospital serves as an access point for health services to residents of Kalyan-Dombivili, and the sudden departure of trained medical staff from its rolls raised immediate concerns about capacity for patient care. The situation also highlighted the vulnerability of doctors and hospital workers in publicly funded institutions, where proximity to local political power can at times translate into unacceptable pressures on professional staff. [5]

MNS Throws Weight Behind Shinde Sena in Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation

In a development that surprised political observers in Maharashtra, the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena announced its support for the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena within the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation. The decision marked a notable crossing of factional lines, given the political distances that had grown between different strands of the Thackeray political legacy in recent years. Dr Shrikant Shinde, speaking after the alliance was confirmed, moved quickly to provide reassurance to coalition partners, stating that despite the unexpected development, the Mahayuti partnership with the Bharatiya Janata Party at the state level remained fully intact. His statement was intended to prevent the KDMC realignment from being read as a sign of fracture in the ruling coalition at the Maharashtra government level. The move by MNS to back Shinde Sena in the municipal body signaled that civic politics in Kalyan-Dombivli could follow its own equation even when those choices create momentary tension with arrangements made at the state capital. Municipal corporations govern key aspects of daily life for residents, including infrastructure development, local health services, and civic resource allocation, meaning shifts in internal support structures within these bodies carry practical consequences beyond political symbolism. The KDMC development added to a picture of Maharashtra politics in which municipal and state-level alliances need not mirror each other, and where smaller parties like MNS retain the flexibility to pursue tactical civic alignments. [7]

Sources: [5] etvbharat.com · [7] The New Indian Express