What fanned the flames at Bhubaneswar’s SUM hospital?

Repeated flouting of fire safety norms, a toothless regulatory body, and human tragedy. Also, zero accountability.

WrittenBy:Subhabrata Dasgupta
Date:
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Even as a local court in Odisha deferred the hearing of the bail application of SUM hospital owner Manoj Nayak, private technical and professional colleges and universities called a bandh on October 27 to protest against Nayak’s arrest. In Bhubaneswar today, representatives from the colleges held a rally and later met top government functionaries to demand the early release of Nayak. They claim Nayak’s speedy arrest is an example of the Naveen Patnaik government acting in a partisan manner.

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According to the fire department report, SUM had been flouting fire safety norms despite repeated notices.

However, three days after the tragedy, SUM hospital reopened and it was business as usual. What is perplexing is that it continues to run without the appropriate fire safety norms. This, even as the Odisha government has issued a show-cause notice to SUM Hospital, demanding an explanation as to why its clinical licence should not be cancelled.

Nayak is related to the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) politician Nalinikanta Mohanty and is also known to be close to former Odisha Health Minister Sabyasachi Nayak. The former health minister’s wife is an Assistant Professor at a management institute that is run by Manoj Nayak’s charitable trust. This same trust owns SUM hospital.

The fire at SUM Hospital has generated new interest in Nayak’s career. Nayak started off humbly as a teacher in a government engineering college. His fortunes soared dramatically as he went on to set up the Siksha O Anusandhan Trust and Odisha’s first private engineering college, the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER). His trust is said to own at least 10 educational institutions and a private university. He also owns News 7, a television news channel and Prameya, a regional newspaper.

Early in 2000, Nayak was accused of cheating and forgery. It was alleged that he and his brother would convince students with low ranks in the Joint Entrance Examination to join ITER. According to the police chargesheet, his college even paid the fees of the students in order to show occupancy. Later, they would urge those students to leave the college in lieu of money and take on candidates with even lower ranks for a price. Nayak was named in the charge sheet, but not arrested. The Odisha High Court later dismissed the case.

In case of the SUM Hospital fire, there were serious lapses that place the blame on Nayak’s door, regardless of the support he’s getting from those who took part in the bandh today.

Speaking to Newslaundry, Dr Santosh Bala, the Inspector General of Police, Fire Service, Home Guards & Civil Defence, Odisha said, “We have a system of doing a fire safety check for all the hospitals. Before the hospitals are given a licence, they have to get a clearance certificate from the Fire Department.”

Bala said that a fire safety audit was done in 2013 and SUM fell short of the adequate measures. The hospital was asked to comply with the findings of the audit. However, “In 2015, our report said that out of 568 hospitals in the state, only three were complying with fire safety measures.” SUM hospital was among the 568 non-complying hospitals.

When asked why no action was taken against the hospital for non-compliance, Bala said, “We, the Fire Safety Department, are not empowered with any sort of punitive authority. It is for the licensing authority—the DMET—to take action against them.”

DMET, or the Directorate of Medical Education and Training, is tasked with issuing necessary clearances to the medical colleges in the state. It comes under the Health Ministry and reports directly to the minister. After the tragedy, DMET filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the hospital, but has not named anyone in it.

Newslaundry attempted to get in touch with the DMET to ask how so many hospitals were operating without the proper licenses. The chief of DMET, Professor PC Mohapatra, and Joint DMET (O) Administrative Officer, Dr UK Satapathy, were not available for comment. We sent a list of questions to the third person in the chain of command, Dr Sikata Nanda, Deputy DMET (O), asking her how the hospital was granted clearances despite failing to comply with fire safety guidelines. There has been no response as of this time. If and when we receive a response, this article will be updated.  

Politicians, however, were united in blaming officials who are accused of enabling the culture of impunity in which SUM hospital operated. Odisha Pradesh Congress vice president Bijayalaxmi Sahoo told Newslaundry that a probe would be launched to determine which officials were complicit in emboldening SUM hospital.

“The biggest accountability lies with the Health Secretary. Officials should also be brought to book. It is not enough to just blame the politicians. It is the bureaucracy which makes a lot of these decisions. A politician is not aware of the every minute detail,” BJD MP Tathagata Satapathy told Newslaundry.

With everyone passing the buck, it’s clear from the recent tragedy that there is dire need to scrutinise how the system is being manipulated. Unfortunately, seeing how quickly SUM Hospital has returned to business as usual, it doesn’t look like anyone is interested in either scrutiny or introspection.  

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