The AMRI tragedy brought arch political adversaries chief minister Mamata Banerjee and CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose face to face. When Mr Bose went to the SSKM Hospital, he stopped his car when he saw Ms Banerjee. Both said a polite “namaskar” and then Ms Banerjee held Mr Bose’s hand and assured him that her government was taking every possible measure.
Mr Bose asked: “What will the government do to return the dead bodies to the kin? Will the government arrange any conveyance for the dead?” Pat came the reply from Ms Banerjee, “I have myself taken care of everything. I have arranged hearse for each body.” Later, Mr Bose said: “The government should do everything possible to cope up with this tragedy which has never happened before in Bengal. We are not here to put the government in the dock for the tragedy. Rather, we are ready to assist the government in every possible way.”
Echoing the spirit of the party secretary, Leader of the Opposition Suryakanta Mishra said that the Left Front will offer its full co-operation to the Mamata Banerjee government in wake of the fire tragedy. The Left Front has also urged the government to declare a state mourning on December 10.
Dr Mishra said, “It is a very sad incident which is unprecedented in this state as well as in the country. This is not the time to start a blamegame or conduct a post-mortem of the incident. We have extended our support to the state government to tide over the situation. The state government is taking steps that are required.”
It should take appropriate action against the accused persons after inquiry.”
Dr Mishra visited the AMRI Hospital in the morning. Later, he also went to the SSKM Hospital. “At both the hospitals, I met the chief minister. I urged her to declare tomorrow as the state mourning day. Irrespective of political colours, everybody should join in the mourning,” added Dr Mishra who is also the former state health minister.
On being asked whether he had given the licence to the AMRI Hospital when he was health minister, Dr Mishra replied: “This is an old institution and I did not give the licence. But since the annexe building is a new one, the licence for this building might have been issued during my tenure. But the health department issues licence to every new hospital.”
Replying to a specific query on whether the health department had thoroughly examined all necessary infrastructure while renewing the licence, he said: “The department officials who are concerned have had to do it strictly. If they had not done it properly, the concerned officials would definitely be exposed in the inquiry.”