At a press-meet today, Singh who handles the civic health portfolio, charged the administration with favouring HLL for the last four years and questioned the absence of inviting tenders from the open market.

Singh said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) administration, including its hospitals, garages and wards, use about 30,000 soaps daily and the monthly expenditure on the same batch of soaps (which is split into three parts) is over Rs 9 lakh. At a six-monthly rate, expenditure amounts to around Rs 71 lakh, he says.

Singh also announced the opening of the five-storey Siddharth Hospital at Goregaon (West), which was shut for over a year for want of a political personality to inaugurate it. He said Mayor Nandu Satam would now inaugurate the hospital on June 25. Likewise, the Charkop Maternity Hospital will beinaugurated on July 25. The 120-bed, multi-faculty hospital with 138 staff members and built at a cost of around Rs 6 crore will benefit residents in the western suburbs as there is no municipal hospital between Vile Parle and Malad.

Meanwhile, Executive Health Officer Dr Alka Karande, who was also present, said the civic administration has made the necessary preparations to face the onslaught of monsoon and has issued the requisite information to the public on precautions.

Quizzed about the prevalence of water-borne diseases, she said,``Water-borne diseases have a seasonal trend and are likely to make their presence felt more fiercely during the monsoon. In cases of jaundice, many prefer to try alternative medicines and come for allopathic treatment as a last resort, usually to late. Hence the increase in such cases.''

Deputy Municipal Commissioner S R Dange said contamination of water has been checked to a large extent.