A Bhubaneswar hospital where 21 people died in a blaze didn’t have fire safety clearance, Union health minister JP Nadda said on Wednesday, adding to growing outrage over flouted norms that likely added to the death toll.
A nurse peeps out from the broken window of Bhubanewar’s SUM Hospital where a fire on Monday night killed 21 people. (PTI)
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Speaking to reporters, Nadda urged the state government to punish those guilty of flouting safety guidelines, two days after a fire broke out in the SUM hospital and gutted the intensive care and dialysis units.
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“In this incident, one aspect has come up that said the hospital didn’t have clearance of fire safety measures. The state government has to take care,” Nadda was quoted as saying by ANI.
“We see some protocol breach. The inquiry report will come soon. The state government should see that punitive action is taken.”
Nadda said he would ask officials to draft stringent provisions so that the guidelines are followed. “A fresh advisory will be given to all the states so that such incidents do not take place in future,” ANI quoted the health minister as saying.
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“Prima facie, I find some safety issues which need to be addressed, people’s faith need to be reposed.”
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“Prima facie, I find some safety issues which need to be addressed, people’s faith need to be reposed.”
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The local administration has already filed a report that says fire safety norms weren’t followed and many officials in charge of evacuation didn’t coordinate, possibly leading to many deaths and injuries. More than 100 people have been shifted out of the premises for treatment.
On Tuesday, four officials, including the superintendent of the hospital, were arrested and four other employees suspended. The arrests were made shortly after the Odisha government filed two FIRs alleging negligence in conduct and safety against SUM Hospital.
Dhrubo Jyoti is Deputy Executive Editor at Hindustan Times, where they help oversee the newspaper’s daily news and opinion coverage. They are part of the leadership team of the newspaper and their daily responsibilities include news selection, commissioning and editing, apart from planning and executing special projects. Apart from this, they write on national affairs at the intersection of caste and sexuality, with a focus on elections, politics and the lifeworlds of the caste marginalised. Formally trained in physics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and Bose Institute, Kolkata, they made a switch to studying journalism from the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. Over the past decade at Hindustan Times, they have worked at the National Desk, Page 1 team, Integrated Copy Desk and Special Stories Team, before running the opinion page as views editor for two years, and then moving back as Senior Editor of News Operations. In the past 12 years, they have reported on numerous national and state elections, specialising on caste-informed coverage of major moments in India’s history, and focussing on leading investigations into government accountability and social inequities. Their narrative non-fiction work aims to put Dalit voices at the core of India’s LGBTQIA+ movements.
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