The committee, led by the superintendent of the hospital Dr Asish Basu, will submit a report to the health department within a week.
A day after the fire at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, a seven-member committee has been formed to investigate the sabotage angle as one of the possible causes of fire. The state government has already ordered two parallel probes — one by the state fire department and the other by the Public Works Department (PWD) which shoulders the responsibility of maintenance of the hospital.
The committee, led by the superintendent of the hospital Dr Asish Basu, will submit a report to the health department within a week. The fire which broke out at the pharmacy of the hospital on Wednesday has destroyed medicines worth Rs 5 crore.
TMC MLA and West Bengal Medical Council president Dr Nirmal Maji said that the probe committee has been put up as a foul play was suspected. "We suspect that something fishy was on, and to suppress certain things it is possible that there could have been a sabotage. The committee will investigate everything and if found guilty, offenders would be severely dealt with," Maji said.
The probe by the PWD would check whether there had been any failure in the maintenance of the firefighting arrangements of the hospital, and the fire department will look into the cause of fire. The PWD will also see whether there was CCTV footages available of the pharmacy when the fire took place. They will also see whether water sprinklers were working.
Maji said that although it was suspected that the fire was caused owing to a short circuit, but lights and fans on other parts of the building were working. Sources also said that of late the state health department had found out that the hospital pharmacy, instead of procuring medicines from central medical stores was purchasing those locally against a higher price. "The committee will investigate whether there was any attempt to destroy evidences. There had been a destruction of documents earlier as well," he said.
In a separate development, the state health department had decided that following the incident, none of the pharmacies at hospitals would be housed at any building which would have patients.
BJP leaders said that there was a scam going on and the hospital management committee members were also involved in it. "All the sabotage theory was to divert attention. It is a case of pure negligence. Again there was a corrupt practice of selling life saving medicines outside at a high price. The medicines were supposed to be administered on patients against no cost," said BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha.
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