AMRI Hospital
In the aftermath of the disastrous fire accident at the AMRI Hospital, Kolkata, this morning, six of the Hospital’s directors have been arrested and the license of the hospital cancelled.
The directors – R.S. Goenka, Manish Goenka, Prasanta Goenka, S.K. Todi, Ravi Todi, and Dayananda Agarwal – have been arrested and charged with several non-bailable offences.
Damayanti Sen, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), said: “Six directors of AMRI Hospital charged under Section 304 (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (Attempt to commit culpable homicide), 285 (Negligent conduct with respect to Fire), 34 (Common intent) of IPC. Case also registered under 11-C, 11-J & 11-L under West Bengal Fire services Act. Arrest of the 6 directors of AMRI done over FIR which was filed by Fire services Department.”
Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, announced the cancellation of the hospital’s license.
We think the Government should inquire thoroughly into the existence/adequacy of the arrangements at the hospital for fire-prevention, fire-detection, and fire-management facilities at the hospital and whether the statutory provisions have been duly complied with. If there are deficiencies, the Government would do well to pull up all the responsible functionaries in the various departments of the government and Municipal Corporation and prosecute them along with the directors and other staff of the hospital itself; after all, non-compliance with statutory provisions over all these years would not have been possible without the acquiescence of the government functionaries.
Tags: AMRI Hospital Fire AMRI Hospital Kolkata
