By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 19, 2016: The union government will issue fresh guidelines to all states to ensure hospital to be fire compliant, union health minister J P Nadda said on Wednesday.

Nadda was here to see the patients in various hospitals who have been badly injured by a fire in Sum Hospital that killed 21 people.

Without mincing many words, Nadda said he expected the state government- health being a state subject – to ensure that “culprits do not go scot-free.”

Total 21 patients died from asphyxiation or during evacuation after a fire broke out in the dialysis wing of the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital on Monday evening.

“I am told that the said hospital didn’t have clearances of fire safety measures and was running in spite of that. Another interlinked issue is, I am told that this was an empanelled hospital. That means in a way the government is recommending the services of this hospital for medical treatment. If this is true, these (charges) are very serious in nature,” Nadda told the media.

The state government has ordered for a probe by Revenue Divisional commissioner [RDC] which Nadda hoped would come out with details of sequences leading to fire incident in Sum Hospital.

Nadda along with union Ministers for Petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan visited patients – nearly a hundred – who are now being treated at other city hospitals and had a meeting with state officials.

Promising full support and all help from the Central Government, Nadda said that he would wait for the state ordered probe’s findings.

Ironically, Odisha which brought into force ‘The Orissa Fire Services Act in 1993 has yet to frame its rules 23 years later allowing for a violator, whether a hospital or a high rise, to be punished.

Nadda said that the SUM incident was very serious in nature, and despite fire safety department being with the home ministry, he would ask his officials to revisit the guidelines under the Clinical Establishment Act 2010 and provide for more stringent or new provisions to ensure that fire safety and other protocols are followed, and such incidents do not take place in the future.

The hospital and medical college is run by a society, Siksha O Anusandhan University founded by Manoj Nayak which runs a bunch of educational institutes.

Meanwhile, the Police Commissionerate here has issued a look out notice against Manoj Nayak, his wife Saswati Das, both of whom are the trustees of the Shiksha O’ Anusandhan Charitable Trust.

The circular has been issued to prevent Manoj and his wife from moving out of country, informed Police Commissioner YB Khurania. Moreover, a letter has also been sent to the Union Home ministry in this regard, informed Khurania.