Bhubaneswar, March 18 Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Wednesday suspended four officers for dereliction of duty, two days after a fire incident at the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack claimed the lives of 12 patients, officials said.
The suspended officials include three personnel from the fire service and one from the electrical department.
Preliminary investigations suggest that the fire may have been caused by a short circuit in the air-conditioners.
However, the fire department had yet to determine the actual cause of the fire, an official said.
"In the wake of the horrific fire incident at the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack, which resulted in the loss of many lives, Majhi has taken strong action by placing four officers under suspension," the chief minister's office said in a statement.
Sources said the action was taken based on preliminary findings of the fact-finding committee headed by development commissioner DK Singh.
The suspended officers are deputy fire officer Prakash Kumar Jena, assistant fire officer Sanjib Kumar Behera (both Cuttack circle), station officer of SCB Medical and Hospital Abhinav Prusty, and assistant executive engineer of SCB sub-division under Cuttack GED, Ranjan Kumar Biswal.
The fire broke out in the trauma care ICU on the first floor of the hospital’s trauma care block around 2:30-3 am on March 16. At the time, 23 patients were admitted. Twelve patients died, and at least 11 staff were injured during rescue and evacuation operations.
Majhi, who visited the site about an hour after the fire, had ordered a judicial probe and announced an ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh for the next of kin of each deceased patient.
In a related development, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Bhakta Charan Das alleged that another fire incident took place at the SCB Medical College Hospital’s non-trauma care casualty unit on Wednesday.
While SCB authorities and police refused to comment, Das, in a post on X, claimed, "Another fire mishap at SCB Medical College & Hospital exposes a serious failure of safety and oversight. Repeated incidents, even after the ICU tragedy, reflect clear administrative negligence. Accountability must be fixed immediately with strict action against those responsible. If the health minister is not able to do his duty, he should step down."
Patient attendants claimed that they noticed smoke emanating from an electrical board, following which fire service personnel were called, who brought the situation under control.
Meanwhile, the opposition BJD termed the suspension of four junior officers as an "eyewash," and alleged that the state government adopted a very casual approach to such a sensitive matter.
"The attempt to shift responsibility onto a few junior officials is nothing but a diversionary tactic to shield those actually accountable," BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said in a statement and demanded a fair and transparent inquiry fixing responsibility at the highest level.
The party has been demanding the resignation of Health and Family Welfare Minister Mukesh Mahaling on moral grounds and urged the chief minister to remove him immediately.
The party also raised serious questions regarding the alleged failure of critical fire safety systems, including non-functional sprinklers and alarms.
The party demanded that the role of the director general of fire services must be thoroughly examined instead of limiting action to lower-level staff.