Days after the fire that killed over 90 people, mostly patients, the State Fire department and the city civic body are blaming each other for bending rules to let the Emami-Shrachi joint venture-run AMRI Hospital operate in apparent violation of fire safety and civic rules.
Faced with criticism, both the key organisations are now claiming innocence about the alleged violations.
Passing the buck
Senior officials of at Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) maintain that the trade licence of the hospital (Annexe Building) was renewed in the first week of September 2011. The decision was taken only after the hospital authorities produced required clearances from the State Fire and Emergency Services Department.
“We renewed the trade licence after AMRI provided us with an NOC from the fire department,” a senior licence and revenue department official of KMC said. Trade licences of buildings or commercial establishments including shops are renewed by the civic body following clearance from the Fire And Emergency Services Department.
According to West Bengal Disaster Management Minister, Mr Javed Khan, provisional NOCs are often given to commercial and clinical establishments with a three-month time frame to ensure adherence to these norms.
“We will have to inquire into the matter. An NOC, if at all given, must be a temporary one subject to conditions,” he said.
Civic rules bent
Fire department officials, however, put the onus on KMC. “We only checked and cleared the fact as to whether the building had the necessary fire fighting arrangements or not,” Mr Gopal Bhattacharya, director, Fire and Emergency Services, told Business Line .
Blaming KMC for the mess, he said, that the civic body had in 2006 cleared proposals to ensure commercial use of the basement of AMRI hospitals in place of the originally proposed car-parking lot.
“Ask KMC why they cleared proposals for alternative usage of the basement and allowed car parking outside the hospital premises. I have nothing more to say on this,” he added pointing out that AMRI had flouted safety norms by changing the usage patterns of the building.
Senior building department officials admit that as per the original sanctioned plan by KMC, the basement of the Annexe Building was to be used as a parking lot.
The Director General of Buildings Department, Mr Debasish Kar, refused to comment on the matter.