88 Died In India's Hospital Fire, Owners Arrested

By STAFF Writer
December 09, 2011

AMRI HOSPITAL FIRE NEWS - Six owners of India's Kolkata city AMRI Hospital were arrested Friday evening following massive fire in the hospital that killed at least 88 people out of suffocation.

The arrested owners are SK Todi, Ravi Todi, RS Goenka, Manish Goenka, Dayananda Agarwal and Prasanta Goenka. The licence of AMRI has also been cancelled.

The private air-conditioned six-storeys hospital was issued a warning back in July this year about inadequate fire safety mechanism.

The fire in the building spread from basement, engulfing one after other wards trapping people in hundreds. Most of the patients died out of suffocation caused by carbon monoxide accumulation and some due to burns.

The worst affected patients were in the ICU ward who died due to asphyxiation.

Deaths could have been prevented if the accumulated gas could get a way to escape. The entire building is surrounded by glass facade.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reached the spot but resulted in stoking the rage of people and leading to near-stampede.

AMRI has announced Rs 5 lakh as compensation to families of the deceased. Separate packages of compensation have also been announced by the centre and state government.

Deaths could have been prevented if the accumulated gas could get a way to escape. The entire building is surrounded by glass facade.

Rescued patients have been shifted to different hospitals. About 42 of them to Mukundpur AMRI Hospital, 9 at Saltlake AMRI, 5 at Belle Vue Clinic, 2 at SSKM Hospital and 1 at Calcutta Medical College.

The cause of the fire is still not known. The National Disaster Rescue Force team has checked the basement of the hospital for radiation leak said chief minister. Ms Banerjee also added that forensic experts would be inquiring into it too.

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December 09, 2011 | 0 comments

Left Is No More Right

From EDITOR's Desk

Trinamool Congress party supporters celebrate

India wrapped up its biggest political capsize as the popular firebrand lady of Bengal clean swept the three decade old Communist government. Mamata Banerjee, leader of the Trinamool Congress Party struggled for 34 years to oust Left, winning more than 60 percent of the seats allied with the Congress party. She is a cabinet minister but certain to take the must obsessed post of chief minister.

The day result was declared, the capital Kolkata almost dressed in green clothes, triumphant supporters danced in front of Ms. Banerjee’s modest home. Trinamool chief in her emblematic attire – a simple handspun white cotton sari and plastic sandals stood in front of her house, smiling towards jubilant crowd. Didi or big sister as she referred to, declaring by a woman supporter that her party ultimately subjugated the Communists and started the “new day of independence” for the people of West Bengal.

The ejection of Left is a shameful end of an ideological political dynasty and rise of a fresh force that promised tons of things. Nonetheless, Ms. Banerjee who was always hold responsible for a party of goons, is now come with more sophisticated team, consisting of civil servants and more intellectuals. It’s believed that they will get the important ministries in the state and a few will go to her all time old minions. The win would also prove to be a factor in New Delhi as it might be a step for long lost Congress to step in Bengal.

Sitaram Yechury, a member of the Communist Party’s politburo said they accepted people’s verdict as people wanted change.

In Kolkata, which is distinctively named as the cultural capital of India, Ms. Banerjee was perceived as a madcap among elite or intellectual society. Famous for her wearing unkempt flip-flops, involving in street brawls, publicly humiliating ministers, and a few unparliamentarily gestures, her two year tenure as a railway minister also witnessed many ups and downs. She renamed railway stations to gain political mileage, skipped most of the cabinet ministry meetings, and banned red color at events as a token gesture of her hatred for the Communist government. However, She is also the poorest Member of Parliament because she’s seen as incorruptible, even by her fiercest enemy, and that’s a rarity in Indian politics.

The most literate state in India, Kerala also witnessed topple of power in this election. The ruling Left Democratic Front was narrowly defeated by Congress-led opposition.

Surprisingly the beleaguered Congress Party who suffered from tarnished image after series of corruption charges had a mixed performance. It again come to the power in Northeastern Assam but suffered a mighty lose in Tamil Nadu, where Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party, or D.M.K. a key ally battered by the biggest corruption scandal in Indian history, bluntly shown the exit door.

Undoubtedly, the biggest bombshell of this election is the end of the supremacy of party, which proudly proclaimed itself as a cohort of Karl Marx and Josef Stalin and put their portraits on office walls, and called each other “comrade”.

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April 28, 2011 | 0 comments

Too many green signals for poor in Rail Budget 2009-10

NO INCREASE IN FARES | SAFETY TOP PRIORITIES | MONTHLY PASS @ RS 25

• Tatkal tickets charge only Rs.100 instead of Rs.150
• Introduction of 12 non-stop trains
• Rail tickets also to be available post offices
• ‘Janata Khana’ will be introduced
• Monthly ticket pass at Rs.25 only fo upto 100 kms
• Women commandos in key routes trains
• Tatkal booking only in 48 hours

• Mobile rail ticket vans to be introduced. Now only 50 in numbers
• 200 mid and small sized railways stations will now get ATM facilities
• One doctor on each long distance trains
• New factory in Didi’s home state, West Bengal. It will make 500 state-of-the-art coaches annually
• 7 nursing colleges to be introduced to be provide employment to railway spouses
• Cold storages and cargo facilities for perishable goods
• World class railway stations is to be developed on public-private partnership model
• 309 stations out of 375 will be developed through modern facilities
• Air-conditioned double-decker trains to be introduced for inter-city travel
• SMS updates for wait-listed passengers
• 200 automatic vending machines to be introduced at key stations for selling

Quotes from Mamata Banerjee’s Rail Budget speech in Lok Sabha

"People all over the country have high expectations from the railway budget."

"Time has come when our economic and social philosophers have to change their old mindset of economic viability and replace it with social viability and upliftment."

"Fifty stations will be developed into world class facilities."

Snippets: Indian Rail Budget 2009-10, India Rail Budget, Rail Budget 09-10, Mamata Banerjee, Railway Minister

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July 03, 2009 | 0 comments