This story is from May 12, 2021

Who’s accountable for Bharuch fire: Gujarat HC

The Gujarat high court on Tuesday directed the government to find out who is accountable for the fire at Bharuch’s Patel Welfare Hospital, in which 18 persons, including Covid patients and nurses, lost their lives on the night of April 30.
Who’s accountable for Bharuch fire: Gujarat HC
The HC rapped the state government for its alleged inaction to prevent fire incidents in Covid-19 hospitals and said that all its actions are on paper only.
AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Tuesday directed the government to find out who is accountable for the fire at Bharuch’s Patel Welfare Hospital, in which 18 persons, including Covid patients and nurses, lost their lives on the night of April 30.
The HC asked petitioner advocate Amit Panchal to implead Bharuch’s chief officer, Mobin Pirzada, the nodal officer of the hospital, the Bombay Patel Welfare Society, and Bharuch’s chief district health officer as party respondents, and issued notices seeking their response in two weeks.
Further hearing has been posted to April 25.
The HC rapped the state government for its alleged inaction to prevent fire incidents in Covid-19 hospitals and said that all its actions are on paper only. While hearing the petition seeking action in the fire incident, the bench of Justice Bela Trivedi and Justice Bhargav Karia said that somebody has to be made accountable for the incident and commented that the state government’s reply on the issue was vague as to it did not say who had visited the hospital on the day of the fire incident for checking.
Justice Bela Trivedi suggested that Bharuch municipality should be impleaded in the proceedings because the affidavit was not clear on who was responsible for checking the facility during the inspection by the fire department. There has to be accountability and responsibility at the level of the municipality. The judges said that the government’s affidavit was vague as it was silent on who had visited the Bharuch hospital for fire inspection and why the new building, where the Covid ICU was situated, was not inspected.
The government affidavit claimed the authority was not intimated that a Covid ICU was running in the hospital’s new building. The judges said it is hard to believe that the authority was ignorant about the new building and about the hospital running a Covid facility.
Petitioner advocate Amit Panchal filed the petition, alleging inaction on part of the authorities that led to the hospital operating a Covid ICU in its new building without proper fire NOC. The petitioner questioned as to why the inquiry reports of two earlier fire incidents - Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad and
Uday Shivanand Hospital in Rajkot – have not been made public. Justice Trivedi commented, “Merely appointing commission will not serve any purpose.”
After a brief discussion, Justice Karia said, “The court’s anxiety is what are you (the government) doing to prevent such incidents in future. You may hang him (the responsible person) or you may dismiss him. But what are the measures you are taking now, particularly with regard to directions issued 20 years back. The directions are for all the hospitals. It (inaction) amounts to contempt of court. It is contemptuous action on part of the government that it is not being vigilant, and incidents keep happening again and again.”
The judge further commented that the government actions are on paper, as the government report mentioned about the letters written by the authorities but was silent on what action was carried out on basis of those instructions.
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