Kolkata, December 10: After six directors of the AMRI Hospital were sent to the police custody till December 20 by a Kolkata court, the West Bengal government on Saturday remained non-committal on whether a fresh licence would be issued to the hospital management to resume operations in its annexe-I building where 88 persons choked to death in a fire on Friday.
Earlier, Kolkata Police had put the death toll at 91, but later confirmed that three names were listed twice in the police records.
Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh, when asked whether the AMRI management could apply for a fresh licence, said, “They may apply for fresh licences. But the government will consider all aspects. What happened in the past (for cancellation of licence) will also be considered.”
The six directors of the hospital – including RS Goenka of Emami and SK Todi of Shrachi – were remanded to 10-day police custody on Saturday.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday ordered a judicial inquiry into the AMRI Hospital fire, even as the hospital has come out with a statement, promising to set up of a five-member enquiry committee to probe into the tragedy.
Earlier, angry lawyers staged a protest, demanding exemplary punishment for the offenders. They also stopped the lawyers of the accused from appearing in court.
“This is a crime which cannot be tolerated. Even the advocate who will appear should know that we are a part the society,” said ex-president of Alipore Court Bar Bibhabrata Dasgupta.
“The accused went unrepresented. Because of that, they have not been able to move any application. We were requested not to move the application,” said Amitava Ganguly, counsel for the accused.
The fact that the accused were forced to go unrepresented in court could be subversion of justice.
The AMRI fire has been a rude wake up call for the state government. The state has formed a 17-member special investigation team of the Kolkata Police to probe the disaster. A five-member permanent committee has also been set up to monitor fire safety in the city.
“The way the Chief Minister has handled this tragedy – consoled the people with courage and fortitude – we deeply appreciate that,” said Union Finance Minister and senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee.
Mukherjee visited the hospital on late Friday night and met the injured who have been admitted to the SSKM Hospital.
“It is unfortunate that a tragedy of this kind occurred in a place where people come to get well. The Chief Minister is handling the situation. The Centre is willing to help if asked by the state,” Pranab said.
Meanwhile, a minor fire was again discovered at the basement of the hospital. One fire engine, which was already stationed at the hospital, doused the fire.
Earlier, the city’s joint commissioner, Damayanti Sen, said that the fire department had found AMRI’s safety systems inadequate and had instructed the hospital authorities to upgrade it in July this year.
Damayanti Sen said, “In the month of July, the fire service department held an inspection at the hospital and found fire safety mechanism inadequate. They instructed the hospital authorities to upgrade the mechanism and especially instructed them to clear the basement.”
However, questions remain how the hospital managed to renew its trade licence from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation despite violating building norms. The fire services department is also under the scanner for issuing a no-objection certificate (NoC) to the hospital. The onus is now on the government to nail the guilty and build an effective monitoring system to prevent such disasters in future.
The Friday morning fire
It was at 3:30 am on Friday morning that the devastating fire that would claim at least 88 lives began in the basement of the AMRI Hospital in Kolkata. Relatives of the victims though say the hospital knew that the fire had begun as early as 1 am. But it was only at 4:45 am that the first fire tender reached the spot.
When a CNN-IBN team reached the site, they found rescue officials desperately coping with the mammoth task of evacuating hundreds of patients locked inside smoke filled rooms of the hospital.
Critical patients trapped inside the smoke-filled ICU were the biggest casualties. In a desperate bid to rescue them windows were broken.
Locals rushed in as fire-fighters collapsed unable to cope with the smoke.
The families of the trapped patients waited outside in anxiety and a few hours later for many of them their worst fears were confirmed.
Aftermath of the fire
The official death toll from the fire in the private hospital is said to be 88, with many injured still being deemed as critical.
The hospital has lost its license. It claims it had adequate fire safety equipments but for patients who were already receiving critical care confined to their beds, all they had were stairs to climb down from and help that came several hours too late.
Political reactions
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday expressed shock and anguish over loss of lives in a massive fire that broke out in the Kolkata hospital and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.
Singh also conveyed his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the tragedy, a PMO spokesman said.
Not just the Prime Minister, even the Trinamool Congress (TMC) expressed their grief over the hospital fire. The TMC said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was correct is cancelling the hospital’s license as there were major lapses on the part of the hospital authorities.
“We think that there is definitely some negligence on the part of the authorities who were running this place and from what I gather that the common people from the locality wanted to break in and help the patients but they were not allowed by the authorities and nearly for one and half, two hours they allowed the fire to surge ahead,” said TMC leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.
“It is condemnable that the authorities didn’t take proper notice of the serious misconduct on the part of the administration, and the Chief Minister has already ordered cancellation of their license,” Kakoli added.
West Bengal Health Minister Sudip Bandhyopadhyay said that he was shocked and surprised that a super-specialty hospital like AMRI did not have proper fire safety norms.
“Yes its a super-specialty hospital and it is surprising that there were no fire safety norms. Mamata is state health minister and she is concerned,” said Bandhyopadhyay.
–PTI