Rajasthan Congress chief demands health minister's resignation over Jaipur hospital blaze

Kota (Rajasthan) Oct 8 (PTI) Two days day after a massive fire ripped through the trauma centre of the SMS Hospital in Jaipur that claimed eight lives, Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra on Wednesday demanded the state health minister to resign after taking responsibility of the tragic incident.

Speaking to mediapersons in Bundi, Dotasra blamed the state government for failing to prevent tragedies, and said Health Minister Gajendra Singh Khimsar must resign and this "parchi" (paper slip) system must be replaced.

Congress leaders often refer to the BJP government in Rajasthan as "parchiwali sarkar", claiming that all the instructions come from the Centre and that the bureaucracy runs the show in the state.

The fire gutted the neuro ICU on the second floor of the trauma centre on Sunday night, killing six of the 11 patients on critical care support. Fourteen patients from another ICU on the same floor were evacuated, two of whom died later, according to officials.

"People reached the hospital to save themselves, but they lost their lives instead. What can be a more drastic misfortune than this," Dotasra asked.

"They (BJP) accuse the Congress of politicising tragedies, but we are only asking who all are responsible for the loss of lives, and demanding assistance and compensation for the victims, which is not at all politics," he said.

The hospital staff were warned of sparks in the wires days earlier, but no one heeded the warning and eventually a big tragedy occurred, killing eight people, Dotasra alleged.

"After the incident, the superintendent of SMS Hospital denied deaths by fire, claiming people died due to suffocation in smoke. He did not even care to think that the smoke was triggered by fire," Dotasra said.

The state Congress chief also claimed that the chief minister visited the hospital after the tragedy and directed to erase all evidence.

The health minister is still unable to explain the reasons behind the fire, while neither him or the chief minister has issued any statement, Dotasra said.

On the Assembly bypoll scheduled in Anta in Baran district on November 11, Dotasra sounded confident about the Congress winning the seat.

"People are suffering but the government seems happy. The Congress will win the bypoll under such conditions," he said.

He also said the Congress high-command will decide the candidate for the seat, which fell vacant after the disqualification of sitting BJP MLA Kanwar Lal Meena in May after his conviction in a 20-year-old case of pointing a pistol at a sub-divisional magistrate. PTI COR SHS ARI