Orissa hospital didn’t have fire clearance, says JP Nadda

Raps Orissa govt, vows fresh guidelines to states on safety.

Apparently unhappy with the actions so far taken by the Orissa government against the Sum Hospital authorities for the Monday’s inferno that claimed 21 lives, Union health minister J.P. Nadda on Wednesday exerted indirect pressure on the state administration to bring to book the real culprits and punish them.

Mr Nadda also said his ministry would issue fr-esh advisories to all the states to ensure that all hospitals complied statutory guidelines with reg-ards to fire safety measures.

“The hospital did not have fire safety measures in place. In spite of that, the hospital was running. It is very saddening, shocking, painful and worrisome that the fire incident occurred at Sum Hospital. I’m told that inquiries are going on. But, prima facie, I found some serious issues, inc-luding violation of safety protocols, which led to such unfortunate incident. People responsible should be punished,” Mr Nadda told reporters after visiting the fire mishap survivors at AIIMS, AMRI Hospitals and KIIMS Hospital.

Union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan accompanied Mr Nadda during his visit to various hospitals to meet the fire tragedy survivors.

The Union health minister’s remark was viewed here in political circles as an indirect dig at the state government which has not yet initiated any credible actions against the top brass of the Sum Hospital.

While the Opposition is mounting pressure to arrest Manoj, the promoter of Sum Hospital, for non-compliance of fire safety norms as well as various statutory guidelines governing the running of a medical college and hospital, the police has so far arrested only four persons.

One of the arrested pe-rsons — superintendent of Sum Hospital Puspa-raj Samanta Singhar — got himself admitted to the cardiology ICU of SCB Hospital on Wednes-day, raising doubts about the nexus between the state government and the hospital authorities.

“I have clearly told Orissa health minister Atanu Sabysachi Nayak to take appropriate action against the hospital authorities for alleged violations of protocols with regard to evacuation of patients during the tragedy and non-compliance of both the state government and Union government’s guidelines. I hope he would act in proper manner,” said Mr Nadda.

Mr Nadda also said his ministry would issue fresh advisories to all the states to ensure that all hospitals complied statutory guidelines with regards to fire safety measures and patient evacuation.

Asked if he believed the inquiries ordered by the state government would be fair, - Mr Nadda said, “Let the inquiries reports come out. Then, we will take a call on it.”

Notably, the state government has ordered probes by Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Central Range) and Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) into the mishap.

Meanwhile, one more person injured in the fire tragedy died on Wednesday at AIIMS hospital here. The deceased was identified as Janaki Hui of Jaleswar in Balasore district.