High-Tech Tragedy In Bhubaneswar: Odisha Govt Orders Probe By Labour Commissioner

Bhubaneswar: Amid widespread protest over the December 29 AC blast at High-Tech Hospital that claimed the lives of three persons and goof-up in declaring the identity of the deceased, the Odisha government reportedly stepped in to ascertain details of the mishap.

According to reports, the state government has asked the Labour Commissioner to conduct a thorough probe into the incident and submit a detailed report.

The government move comes after protesters belonging to different organisations staged demonstrations and hurled eggs and tomatoes at official residence of Health Minister Niranjan Pujari in Bhubaneswar on Monday and Tuesday. They demanded immediate arrest of owner of Hi-Tech hospital Tirupati Panigrahy for the identity goof-up following death of three of the four technicians injured in the December 29 evening blast.

All Odisha Students’ Voice (AOSV), a students’ outfit, took out a bike rally on Tuesday demanding Panigrahi’s arrest and cancellation of licence of the medical-college-cum-hospital in the city. Similarly, the student wing of Congress had staged a protest outside the Health Minister’s residence on Monday.

Opposition BJP and Congress have also lashed out at the state government accusing it of protecting the hospital authorities. The BJP state unit demanded a judicial probe into the fatal mishap.

Following demand for his arrest, Panigrahi had on Monday claimed the hospital took correct steps both legally and ethically and he was prepared to face any investigation.

The identity mix up of the victims of the blast had led to a chain of events while exposing the shoddy identification procedure adopted by the hospital authorities and police. Dilip Samantaray, who sustained critical burns in a compressor explosion and was thought to have succumbed, following which his wife died by suicide out of grief, was found to be alive and under treatment on January 4. He, however, suffered a cardiac arrest and passed away early on Saturday, January 6, within hours after being taken off ventilator and revealing his true identity.

While his family was left completely shattered by his demise for the second time in a week, the goof-up also came as a shock for Jyoti Ranjan Mallick, who had instead died on December 30.