PIL against KIMS to cancel license

Cuttack: Close on the heels of the October 17 inferno in SUM hospital which claimed 31 lives and left many injured, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in Orissa High Court on Tuesday seeking cancellation of license of Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) for violating fire safety norms.

The PIL filed by Shiv Shankar Mohanty cited that the license of the private hospital also expired two months ago.

“In 2012, the Fire Services department had conducted a fire safety audit and given KIMS one month time to comply with fire safety guidelines. But the fire mandatory fire safety norms were ignored. Thus, the hospital continued to function without adopting the prescribed fire fighting guidelines. Besides, the license of the hospital, given under Clinical Establishment Act has also expired two months back. Currently it is running without a fire safety certificate”, said Shiv Shankar Mohanty, the petitioner.

Odisha chief secretary, principal secretary of Health and Family Welfare department, DMET, CDMO Khurda and DG (Fire Services) have made party in the writ petition.

Next hearing of the writ petition is on December 15.

Meanwhile, the Health and Family Welfare Ministry has acted swiftly (if belatedly) and issued an advisory and circulated provisions to all States and Union Territories on fire safety. The Centre has instructed all Central government hospitals/institutes to obtain No Objection Certificates (NOC) from fire department in a time-bound manner. A committee has been constituted in the ministry to prepare guidelines on fire safety and its implementation in hospital buildings.