Odisha: PIL seeks cancellation of license of Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday received a PIL seeking Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) licence cancellation on account violation of safety norms. This PIL has come soon after the SUM hospital tragedy on Oct 17, which claimed 31 lives and left many injured

"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.

The PIL also cited that the license of the private hospital also expired two months ago.

Government officials like the 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.

December 15 is the date fixed for the next hearing of the writ petition .

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry has on its part taken action by issuing an advisory and also circulated provisions to all States and Union Territories on fire safety.

Meanwhile, the centre has made it mandatory that all government hospitals and institutes have 'No Objection Certificates' (NOC) from fire department asking them to obtain them in a time bound fashion.

The ministry has constituted a committee to prepare fire safety guidelines and its implementation in hospital buildings.