Vadodara corporation comes into action only after HC takes up fire NOC case

Since Vadodara’s first case of COVID19 in March 2020, four cases of fire had been reported until June 1 at COVID hospitals in the city. Yet, the corporation, for more than a year, was largely indifferent to these recurrent cases of fires until after the Gujarat High Court sought affidavits from authorities in connection to a PIL filed by Advocate Amit Panchal on measures taken by the government after fire incidents at COVID19 hospitals.

Recently, on May 29, Vadodara’s Municipal Commissioner suspended the permission of 125 COVID hospitals over fire NoC. These 125 hospitals, as per the notification, have been disallowed to admit COVID patients until an NoC is issued. The Commissioner further added that if a hospital was found to be treating COVID patients without a fire NoC, they would be liable for strict action. However, these steps only came as a follow-up to the HC’s statement of “fixing responsibility on the officers”.

A review of fire incidents in Vadodara over the last year draws a grim image. Thirty-five patients had to be evacuated from SSG after a fire broke out in its ICU ward on September 8. Not even a week later, a minor blaze erupted in the neurosurgery ward at SSG on September 12. On March 17, 23 patients had to be evacuated after a fire engulfed a portion of Shree Vijay Vallabh Sarvajanik Hospital in the Mandvi area. Not long ago, White Pearl Complex in Padra that housed four hospitals also witnessed a fire incident on May 3.

While Vadodara’s hospitals were fortunate to avert loss of life, there have been multiple occurrences in Gujarat wherein people lost their lives to fires at the hospitals. The Gujarat HC, observing one such tragedy in Bharuch where 16 COVID19 patients and two nurses lost their lives, reprimanded the state government and municipal corporations for non-compliance with the HC’s past orders related to fire safety. A division bench of Justices Bela Trivedi and Bhargav Karia said, “We are very much serious about fixing the responsibility of the officers. This has been going on for years. When specific directions were given to corporations, Nagar Palikas (municipalities), everybody to see to it all the provisions are strictly complied with, then why no action is being taken?”

Notably, the 125 COVID-designated hospitals were operational without an NoC for the entirety of 2020 and until May 29 in 2021. After affidavits in the HC revealed that 2,204 hospitals operated without an NOC in Gujarat, reports of Surat Municipal Corporation and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation also sealing hospitals with no fire NoCs came across over the previous week. On the question of the corporation only jumping to action after the High Court’s directions, the Commissioner of VMC, P Swaroop, and the Chief Fire Officer, Parth Brahmbhatt, were unavailable for comment.