@RavikiranRKD
As expected, an SOS has now been sent to district authorities to conduct a fire safety and oxygen audit of all the hospitals across the state, after the devastating fire killed 15 Covid patients at a Virar hospital. Such an audit was much discussed and debated soon after a massive fire in January this year at the government hospital in Bhandara, where 10 newborns died. In between, 10 patients were charred to death in a massive fire that broke last month at a private hospital in Bhandup, and in another shocking incident, 22 lives perished at Nashik municipal hospital due to an oxygen tank leak.
The tragedies have shaken the public psyche when almost everyone is fighting the war against Coronavirus. For, questions such as why such incidents take place and who is responsible for it does not hold any ground. Instead, why we can’t stop such incidents and when we are going to ensure minimum loss matters most. But nobody has any satisfactory answer on this. Even the relief amount announced by the state or the union governments is fast becoming meaningless as people are keen to know what prevents the government machinery to avert such tragedies.
‘This is the time’, was Shiv Sena’s catchphrase during the state assembly elections in 2019. The saffron party came true on this and assumed power by allying with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress. The Shiv Sena executive party chief Uddhav Thackeray heads the government and it may not be wrong to expect the same catchphrase is proven by winning the trust of the people.
The state is passing through one of the most critical phases ever since it came into existence 61 years ago. People have become edgy and anxiousness towards the availability of medical care has become a sore point. At this juncture, any mishap at a hospital is certain to flare up public anger further. For any government, such a situation is the most demanding and delicate one to handle.
Accordingly, commoners have huge expectations from the government because physically and economically they are completely shattered. When the burden of medical expenses has disturbed most of the families, loss of lives in tragedies can become a cause of the outburst.
In our democratic setup, the government is supreme and most powerful. It manages every sphere of public life through the rules, regulations, and laws. Even the civic authorities discharge their duties as prescribed under a specific law. Various permissions from opening an establishment to continue its operation, ensuring public safety and delivery of services are mandated under some of the other rules.
As such, negligence towards safety rules is unacceptable and unpardonable. It is the duty of the government or the local agency to ensure that establishments such as a hospital are being managed with due diligence towards established norms. But, those responsible to keep a check are rarely held guilty. Because, our bureaucracy considers itself answerable to elected representatives alone even as their salaries are drawn from the state revenue income generated through taxes, duties, and fees paid by the common people. Their appointment, posting, and promotions are handled by or performance is assessed by the elected class. As such they are more pliant to the diktats of the political class.
An example from the Kamla Mill compound fire incident that took place in December 2017 is sufficient to elaborate how our system works. The incident saw 14 people dead and subsequent inquiry revealed officers of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) turned a blind eye towards unauthorized construction carried out by two restaurants where the fire broke. The officers were suspended immediately and the proposal to dismiss them was also moved. But all of a sudden, they were taken back into service citing Covid emergency. Neither the ruling party nor the opposition party raised a hue and cry over the decision.
Such incidents have failed the concept of governance. Mishaps provide us with an opportunity to improve or correct the mistakes but we fail to make good out of them. Even in the Bhandara government hospital incident, some scapegoats were found and suspended but no senior person was held responsible for the delay in installing the fire fighting system.
People have started losing faith in the system. It’s the right time to correct it. It is not important who is at the helm and who is in the opposition. The entire political class is at the receiving end during this worst phase of Coronavirus.
NCP supremo Sharad Pawar came as the only exception who made his mind open a few days back when he said it was not a time to play politics and all should come together in this fight against Coronavirus. His statement came after the government acted against a pharma company director for allegedly holding stock of Remdesivir. NCP ministers alleged that the company wanted to export the stock instead of making it available to the state government. But soon after the Mumbai Police summoned the director for questioning, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Devendra Fadnavis and Pravin Darekar, who are the leaders of Opposition in State Legislature, stormed into the office of the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) and questioned the action.
While the heated exchange of words was on, Pawar cautioned his ministers mainly keeping in mind the public anger that is fast accumulating against the politicians. The controversial visit by BJP leaders to the DCP office has also come in for sharp criticism in the political circle as well as on the social media platforms.
The role of the opposition has also become a subject of intense public debate. In this hour of crisis, the BJP was expected to behave more responsibly but every action by the party leaders is being viewed as a desperate attempt to dislodge the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government from making a comeback.
Reacting to the recent incidents of fire at hospitals, when the BJP leaders say why no safety audit was conducted, they conveniently forget that before November 2019 they were at the helm for five years when hardly any attention was paid towards it. It’s not just for the hospitals, but no efforts were made on the fire safety audit issue when 8 people including 7 college students burnt to death during a tragic fire incident at a Kurla restaurant in 2015.
Certainly, alarm bells are ringing for the people in the government and the politics. Their integrity and honesty are at stake. At this critical hour, even the bureaucracy is expected to behave in a most responsible manner keeping in mind the public interest alone. And, they are answerable not just to the ruling class but to people who toil hard to pay taxes to make the system run. If they fail now, the distance between people and the political class will further widen, beyond correction.
