AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Tuesday directed the Bombay Welfare Society to explain the authorities’ assertion that a fire team was not taken for inspection to the new building of Patel Welfare Hospital on the day when fire killed 18 persons in its Covid-19 ward in Bharuch on April 30 night. Two officers – the Bharuch municipality’s chief officer and a secretary of the urban development department – maintained that a fire brigade team of Bharuch municipality had visited the hospital hours before the fire took place. However, the hospital management did not take the team to the new building, where the Covid-19 facility was operational, and the inspection was limited to the old hospital building. The fire broke out in the ground floor of the new building. The authorities asserted that the inspection team was not informed about the new building at all. A petition has sought action against those responsible for the fire that broke out in the hospital killing 16 Covid patients and two nurses. The HC had asked the authorities and the trust and administrator of the hospital to respond to the litigation. The trust filed an affidavit on Saturday. The bench of Justice Bela Trivedi and Justice Bhargav Karia pointed out that the trust’s affidavit was silent on the visit of Bharuch fire brigade team and how it was not taken to the new building. For the trust, senior counsel Percy Kavina told the court that the authorities were not telling the truth and they were aware about shifting of the Covid facility to the new building which is few metres away from the old building. The court has asked the trust to file affidavit on these contradictory facts by June 1.
HC asks Bharuch hosp to explain fire team’s inspection
