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23 August 2024 at 9:59:04 pm

Fatal Negligence

Newborns dying in a fire inside a government hospital is a devastating indictment of a system that is supposed to protect its most vulnerable patients. The Amravati District Women’s Hospital tragedy, where a blaze killed three infants, joins a long list of preventable institutional failures. Thirty-nine babies were inside the three-compartment facility when the fire erupted after a ventilator in the neonatal unit caught fire. Thirty-six were eventually rescued. Parents and eyewitnesses have...

Fatal Negligence

Newborns dying in a fire inside a government hospital is a devastating indictment of a system that is supposed to protect its most vulnerable patients. The Amravati District Women’s Hospital tragedy, where a blaze killed three infants, joins a long list of preventable institutional failures. Thirty-nine babies were inside the three-compartment facility when the fire erupted after a ventilator in the neonatal unit caught fire. Thirty-six were eventually rescued. Parents and eyewitnesses have alleged that the fire alarms did not sound and the automatic sprinklers failed to activate even as the district administration has said the hospital underwent regular fire audits and had applied for this year’s audit. An audit is meaningful only if it establishes that equipment works when lives depend on it. Maharashtra has already witnessed the deadly consequences of fire-safety failures in public hospitals. In 2021, eleven Covid-19 patients died in a fire at the Ahmednagar district hospital even though a fire audit conducted months earlier had recommended a firefighting system. The Amravati tragedy demands more than the familiar ritual of a high-level inquiry, compensation and promises of “strictest action”. The announcement of ex gratia payments cannot compensate parents who have lost a child they had barely begun to know. The investigation must establish not merely what ignited the fire, but why it was allowed to become fatal. Was the ventilator properly maintained? Were electrical and medical devices routinely inspected? Did alarms function? Were sprinklers operational? Was the NICU appropriately located and equipped for evacuation? Were staff trained and drills conducted? And most importantly, who was responsible for ensuring that every safeguard worked? There is another troubling detail: the neonatal unit was reportedly housed on the third floor, rather than at ground level, and questions have arisen over whether the unit was part of the building’s original plan. The state has built an elaborate architecture of laws and child-protection standards which seldom matches the situation on ground. Whether in government hospitals, schools or anganwadis, safety has become a box to be ticked rather than a responsibility to be lived. The most vulnerable children are consequently left dependent not on systems, but on the vigilance and heroism of individual staff members. That is an appalling way to run the childcare infrastructure of one India’s most developed states. A NICU is perhaps the worst possible place for institutional complacency: its patients are immobile, medically dependent and extraordinarily vulnerable to smoke, heat and even brief disruption of life-support equipment. The government must ensure that the Amravati deaths do not become another entry in the grim ledger of hospital tragedies followed by inquiries, outrage and forgetting. The real test will be whether the state can prevent the next newborn from dying in a hospital that was supposed to save him.

‘Terrorist was laughing after shooting my husband’

  • PTI
  • Apr 24, 2025
  • 3 min read
Family members of Shailesh Kalathiya during his funeral in Surat on Thursday. Pic: PTI
Family members of Shailesh Kalathiya during his funeral in Surat on Thursday. Pic: PTI

Ahmedabad: The wife of Surat resident Shailesh Kalathiya, who lost his life in the terror attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam, on Thursday said terrorists showed no remorse as they were seen laughing after shooting her husband dead.


Three Gujarat residents, including Kalathiya, were among the 26 persons killed in the terror attack in south Kashmir's Pahalgam town on Tuesday. Two other victims from the state - Yatish Parmar and his son Smit - were from Bhavnagar city.


The three deceased were cremated at their respective native places on Thursday as local residents joined their funeral processions amid outpouring of grief.


Shitalben Kalathiya, the wife of deceased Shailesh Kalathiya, was visibly upset when her husband's mortal remains were being taken to a crematorium from their house.


Talking to reporters, she said the terrorists showed no mercy as they were laughing after killing her husband from a very close range.


"A terrorist first came close to us and then shot my husband after learning that he is a Hindu. Just like my husband, other Hindu men were shot in front of their children. The terrorist was laughing after shooting my husband and did not leave the place till he died," she said.


Kalathiya's son Naksh performed the last rites of his father in Surat.


Talking to reporters later, Naksh said his father was singled out for being a Hindu and shot dead by a terrorist in front of him and his mother.


Shailesh Kalathiya was vacationing in Pahalgam along with his wife Shitalben, son Naksh and elder daughter Niti when the group of terrorists struck Baisaran.


"As soon as we heard gunshots, all the tourists started running in search of cover at Pahalgam. Two terrorists eventually found us and asked all of us to identify our religion. They divided men in two groups - Hindus and Muslims. Then, they shot dead all the Hindu men, including my father, and ran away," Naksh said.


"At the time of attack, there were nearly 20 to 30 tourists in that area. I feared that I would also be killed. After separating Hindus from Muslims, the terrorists asked them to recite 'kalma'. Muslims who recited it were spared. But those who could not recite were gunned down," he said.


At Bhavnagar, Smit Parmar's maternal cousin Sarthak Nathani explained how the terror attack took place.


Out of the total 20 persons who came to Srinagar from Bhavnagar, including the Parmar and Nathani family, 12 went to Pahalgam where they were targeted by terrorists.


9-year-old lights funeral pyre of father

Balasore: A speechless nine-year-old Tanuj Kumar Satpathy lit the funeral pyre of his father, Prashant, killed in the terror attack in Pahalgam, at their village in Odisha's Balasore district on Thursday morning.


Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena, and Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi were among the hundreds of people who accompanied Tanuj from his home to the crematorium, around a kilometre away, in Ishani village in Remuna block.


Majhi met Prasahnt's family in the morning, and spent around an hour at their house, consoling his wife Priya Darshini and elderly mother.


"I strongly condemn the incident, and the state government solidly stands with the family of Prashant Satpathy at this hour of crisis. The state will provide financial assistance of Rs 20 lakh, a job for his wife and take care of his son's education," he told reporters. It was difficult for Prashant's relatives to take the body to the crematorium as Priya did not allow anyone to touch it.


She hugged the body every now and then. The CM expressed concern over her health as she fainted while talking to him. Prashant, 41, went to Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir with his wife and son on vacation.


Modi leads gathering to pay homage to victims

Madhubani (Bihar): Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a large crowd gathered here on Thursday for a National Panchayati Raj Day programme observed silence for a few moments to pay homage to the victims of the terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir.


Before beginning his speech, Modi urged the gathering to observe silence as a mark of respect to "our family members" who lost their lives on April 22 in Pahalgam.


Modi urged the gathering to remain seated in silence to pay homage to the victims of the terror attack.

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