Karimnagar hospital’s registration cancelled

HYDERABAD: With the Telangana high court taking a serious view of violations in a super-speciality hospital in Karimnagar, the authorities cancelled its registration and sealed the fourth floor of the five-storeyed building. Shockingly, the private hospital in question, Sri Venkateswara Kidney Centre, has not bothered to obtain an NOC from the fire services department in the last two decades.
A bench of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy was hearing a writ appeal filed by Chalmeda Lakshmi Narasimha Rao and C Madhusudan Rao of Karimnagar who questioned the repeated opportunities extended to the hospital to rectify the mistakes.
On Monday, the state counsel informed the court that the fire department had filed a compliance report, which the bench had gone through and said that open spaces cannot be earmarked without demolishing the building.
The hospital directors were present in the court.
The building is illegal as some of the floors are yet to be regularised. All the five floors have no setbacks, no open spaces and firemen cannot enter the hospital in case of any emergency.
“The superspeciality hospital has not acquired NOC from the fire department,” Gandra Mohan Rao, counsel for the petitioners, said. The hospital being run by three doctors — Rajaboina Yakayya, R Padma and R Venkatamma — functioned out of a cellar plus ground floor building. As there weren’t enough setback spaces, the directors applied for building regularisation and later raised three additional floors.
Stating that the hospital would turn into a death trap in case of a fire, the bench severely criticised the municipal and health wing officials for permitting the building in the first place. It gave two weeks to the hospital management to rectify the mistakes or face serious consequences. The bench posted the case to November.
Following a reprimand by the court last week, the municipal officials sealed the fourth floor, while the Karimnagar district medical and health officer cancelled the registration of the hospital.