Mumbai’s Healthcare Crisis: Senior Citizens Caught in Administrative Crossfire
A silent administrative dispute between two Union government agencies in Mumbai is threatening to shut down a crucial public healthcare facility, putting the lives and well-being of more than 2,500 elderly citizens at severe medical risk. The disagreement involves the Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ), operating under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), which falls under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. What should have been a straightforward inter-departmental resolution has devolved into a critical governance failure, with CGHS beneficiaries directly suffering the consequences.
At the heart of this conflict is the CGHS Wellness Centre located in SEEPZ (Andheri East), Mumbai. This facility has consistently served government employees, pensioners, and their dependents for over three decades. Scheduled to cease operations on February 9, 2026, the centre has functioned without interruption from premises allocated by SEEPZ authorities for more than 30 years. This long-standing arrangement was disrupted when SEEPZ issued an eviction notice, citing its own institutional needs for the building. The Additional Director of CGHS Mumbai then escalated the matter to the CGHS Directorate in New Delhi for guidance. However, this referral resulted not in swift problem-solving, but in prolonged bureaucratic inaction.
According to T.K. Damodaran, General Secretary of the CGHS Beneficiaries Welfare Association of India (CBWAI), the CGHS Directorate had clearly outlined two potential courses of action. The first was to begin the formal process of identifying an alternative building — either through collaboration with the Maharashtra government or by inviting private accommodation through public advertisements. The second was to seek permission from SEEPZ to allow the CGHS Wellness Centre to continue operating in the existing premises until a suitable alternative was secured. Damodaran highlights that SEEPZ, despite issuing the eviction notice, had even offered CGHS an alternative building in close proximity to the current centre. This offer, he states, was declined by CGHS Mumbai on technical grounds. For elderly beneficiaries who have relied on the same CGHS Wellness Centre for decades, this refusal is incredibly difficult to understand. ‘For senior citizens,’ Damodaran argues, ‘the existence of the wellness centre matters more than its polish. Even a temporary arrangement would have preserved continuity of care.’
Why the CGHS Wellness Centre is Indispensable
To fully grasp the gravity of this closure, it’s essential to understand the fundamental role a CGHS Wellness Centre plays. CGHS is far from a supplementary service; it forms the core of outpatient healthcare for central government employees and pensioners. These centres provide daily outpatient consultations, dispense medicines for both chronic and acute conditions, offer referral services to empanelled hospitals, give basic diagnostic support, and ensure ongoing treatment for non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cardiac conditions, respiratory illnesses, and arthritis – conditions that disproportionately affect senior citizens. For many elderly beneficiaries, CGHS is not just convenient; it is often their primary, and sometimes only, affordable access point to the healthcare system. Any disruption to this access, even a temporary one, can lead to missed medications, delayed diagnoses, and potentially avoidable medical emergencies.
The decision, made on February 2, 2026, by the Chief Medical Officer overseeing the SEEPZ CGHS Wellness Centre to issue a notice stating that the facility would close from February 9, has triggered widespread alarm. The CGHS Beneficiaries Welfare Association of India labels this move as unilateral and arbitrary, arguing that it completely disregards the healthcare needs of thousands of beneficiaries, especially super senior citizens. Crucially, the association points out that this decision was made without consulting the Zonal Advisory Committee (ZAC) and Local Advisory Committee (LAC) — bodies whose consultation is mandatory under CGHS guidelines before any significant service disruption. Administratively, this omission raises serious questions about process and accountability within CGHS Mumbai.
An Urgent Appeal to the Union Health Minister
As the crisis intensified, the CBWAI formally appealed to Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, urgently requesting intervention from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The association wasn’t seeking an instant permanent solution, but rather a temporary, humane one: to permit the CGHS Wellness Centre to relocate on an interim basis to the alternative accommodation offered by SEEPZ, or to a temporary prefabricated structure, until a suitable long-term facility could be secured. Their letter underscored a fundamental principle of public administration – that the continuity of essential services must always take precedence over inter-departmental rigidity.
Damodaran remains unconvinced by CGHS Mumbai’s official objections to the alternative premises. He contends that while citing procedural requirements and safety compliance may be technically valid, it disregards the on-the-ground reality. Across India, numerous CGHS dispensaries operate from buildings that are far from ideal, often as temporary arrangements. For beneficiaries, there’s a strong perception that administrative caution is being prioritized over actual patient welfare. “What truly worries people,” Damodaran observes, “is that this refusal seems less about safety and more about shirking the responsibility of ensuring uninterrupted care.”
The controversy escalated further after Priyesh Shah, an IRS officer currently serving as Additional Commissioner of Customs in Mumbai and also Joint Secretary for the Western India Zone of CBWAI, sent a strongly worded letter to senior CGHS officials. Shah, writing explicitly in his capacity as an office bearer of the registered beneficiaries’ association, presented the issue in stark terms, warning that when institutions clash, it is always the ordinary people who suffer most. In his letter, Shah highlighted that while SEEPZ needed the premises for its own use, it had generously offered alternative accommodation within its staff quarters and even proposed providing an open plot for erecting a temporary structure using prefabricated cabins. According to Shah, these reasonable offers were summarily rejected by CGHS authorities.
Shah’s letter went further, questioning the practical viability of CGHS’s stated plan to close the wellness centre for “three months” while it searched for private premises. Drawing on his extensive administrative experience, he detailed the numerous stages involved in securing rented government accommodation — including certification from CPWD and state authorities, internal financial approvals, public advertisements, tendering, rent assessment, and final sanction. To suggest that this entire process could be completed within three months, Shah argued, reflects either a profound misunderstanding of governmental procedures or a deeply troubling underestimation of the severe impact such a delay would have on vulnerable patients. His broader appeal was for officials to transcend departmental silos and prioritize the collective interest of the government and its beneficiaries.
As noted by Shah, SEEPZ authorities had also proposed an alternative open plot where CGHS could erect a temporary structure, such as an ‘Instacabin’ or ‘Portacabin.’ Such temporary healthcare facilities are not without precedent in government operations, especially during transitions or emergencies. However, in her formal response, Dr. Geetha Anandan, Additional Director of CGHS Mumbai, stated that no such proposal had been officially communicated with adequate details regarding location, utilities, necessary permissions, and safety compliance. She maintained in her reply that CGHS could not operate from premises deemed unsafe or non-compliant.
In a conversation with The Probe, Dr. Anandan confirmed that the SEEPZ CGHS Wellness Centre in Andheri would indeed close from February 9, 2026. She cited concerns regarding the safety of the alternative building offered by SEEPZ. ‘I am in talks with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and we are exploring other options. In the interim, the senior citizens can access CGHS Wellness Centres at Kanjurmarg, Santacruz, or Sahar. Any permanent relocation could take up to three months. I am also actively looking at private options,’ she explained to The Probe.
However, this assurance provides little comfort to the thousands of beneficiaries. Speaking to The Probe, Priyesh Shah dismissed the proposed alternative arrangements as impractical. He highlighted that the other CGHS centres mentioned are already severely overcrowded, operate for limited hours, and are situated in densely populated areas where access and extended waiting times present major challenges. Given Mumbai’s unique geography and notorious traffic, healthcare access is as much about manageable distances and timely appointments as it is about mere availability. Expecting thousands of additional patients—many of whom are elderly and managing chronic illnesses—to be absorbed into already overstretched centres is not a viable solution; it is merely postponing a larger problem and deferring responsibility.
Ultimately, this situation is not just a dispute over a building; it is a profound test of whether public healthcare systems can respond compassionately and effectively when administrative procedures clash. Senior citizens dependent on CGHS are not abstract figures; they are real people managing multiple illnesses, often with limited mobility and fixed incomes. Disrupting their access to routine, life-sustaining care, even for a short period, can trigger a cascade of severe consequences. A government that prides itself on expanding healthcare coverage must also actively demonstrate its capacity to protect existing, essential services when institutional friction inevitably arises.