Vijayawada: Negligence of hotel, Ramesh Hospitals led to mishap says Panel

Vijayawada: District level committee constituted by the Collector Md Imtiaz to probe into the reasons for the ghastly fire accident and the death of 10 Covid patients at Swarna Palace hotel turned Covid centre prepared a report on Tuesday.

The Committee headed by Joint Collector L Sivasankar has noticed that the gross negligence of the hotel and Dr Ramesh hospitals in the maintenance of the Covid centre led to the fire mishap on Sunday morning.

The committee comprising Vijayawada Sub-Collector HA Dhyana Chandra, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation Chief Medical and Health officer Dr G Geetabai, Regional Fire Officer T Uday Kumar and other officials from CPDCL inspected Swarna Palace hotel, Dr Ramesh hospitals located in two places in Vijayawada and Swarna Heights hotel, which was also taken on lease to run Covid care centre and prepared a detailed report.

District Collector Md Imtiaz on Tuesday evening convened a meeting with the Committee members and enquired about the reasons for the mishap and other lapses they noticed during the two-day inspection of hotel and hospitals. It may be noted that Dr Ramesh Hospitals had taken Swarna Palace hotel on lease to run Covid care centre at Governorpet, Vijayawada.

The committee during the inspection had noticed that the Swarna hotel management had grossly neglected the fire safety norms. Alarm bell and smoke detectors failed to function after the mishap started at 4.30 am.

Later, the fire spread to upper floors within half-an-hour causing damage and loss of lives. The committee also noticed that the staff had wasted about 30 minutes to alert the fire department and the negligence had led to the disaster.

The committee during the inspection at Dr Ramesh Hospitals noticed that the management had collected excess fee and charged from the Covid patients.