The members of the board of director of the AMRI Hospitals at Dhakuria in the southern part of the city are ‘responsible’ for the 2011 fire that had claimed 92 lives including patients and hospital staff.

This was the main finding of the Justice Tapan Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry, whose inquiry report was tabled today in the state Assembly, almost seven years after the country’s worst ever hospital fire on 9 December 2011 that had shocked the nation.

The Mamata Banerjee government had set up the inquiry commission headed by the retired high court judge, Mr Tapan Mukherjee, on 15 December in 2011 to probe the fire that had gutted the hospital building.

The members of the board of directors at the time of the disaster were professor (Dr) M K Chhetri, Mr R S Agarwal, Mr R S Goenka, Mr S K Todi, Mr A V Agarwal, Dr Pranab Dasgupta, Mr D N Agarwal, Mrs Priti Surekha, Mr Prasant Goenka, Mr Manish Goenka, Mr Ravi Todi, Mr Rahul Todi, Dr Sheo Bhagwan Tibrewal, Professor (Dr) Soumendra Nath Banerjee and Mr Sukumar Bhattacharya. In the concluding part of the 197-page inquiry report, Justice Mukherjee stated: “I have observed that (the) board of directors used to run the administration of AMRI Hospital, Dhakuria in Kolkata.

The members of the board of directors are responsible for flouting the rules of fire safety measures paving the way (for the) tragic incident claiming lives of 92 persons and making many persons injured and disabled, so that legal action under Sections 304 part II, 308 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with IPC Section 36 and Section 11 (J) of West Bengal Fire Services Act may be taken against them.”

“It appears from the FIR that (was) lodged by the statement maker, Deepak kumar Sarkar, retired deputy director of Fire and Emergency Services, Government of West Bengal, that the upper basement floor was constructed for basement car parking only. But instead of car parking, the concerned authority used that floor as miscellaneous waste material dumping area and most of the materials were highly combustible. Electrical PVC cables, wooden boxes, portable LPG cylinders, abandoned mattress etc. were stored,” the commission findings stated.

“This change of occupancy has been made without obtaining permission from concerned department. It is further stated that vertical opening at each floor level were not sealed with fire stop. As a result this opening encouraged the movement of smoke and heat in the upper floor areas. It is further stated that the said building is centrally air conditioned but there is no mechanical ventilation system incorporated for early disposal of smoke from upper floor areas. There is gross negligence on the part of the onduty security and hospital staffs in responding to the situation in proper time to rescue the patients from the danger zone,” the commission report stated.

The report also observed in the inquiry: “We have minutes of the meetings which reflect that the steps to be taken to prevent fire in the hospital was an agenda. Thus it can be said that the board of directors attended meetings and they had no eye at the steps to be taken for prevention of fire in the hospital in the interest of the patients and other occupants in the hospital. This is an instance of gross negligence on the part of the administration of AMRI hospital, Dhakuria (sic).”

“The damage caused by death can not be assessed in terms of money. Apart from the dead who have fell to the incident of fire are also bearing the brunt of the incident. However, it appears from the report prepared on the basis of material on record that the relatives of the deceased have claimed compensation of Rs 26,53,72,000 only and they have claimed compensation towards treatment Rs 27,24,454 only. The patients alive who fell victims to the occurrence of fire at AMRI Hospital, Dhakuria, Kolkata, including relatives of patients have claimed compensation of Rs 34,83,612 only (sic),” it further stated