the goan I network
MARGAO
Saying that the Hospicio fire incident will be probed by a senior health officer of the rank of Additional Secretary, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said the building housing the dialysis unit run by the private party will be sealed since it was already declared unsafe five years ago.
The Health Minister further said Health Director Dr Sanjay Dalvi is not involved in any animosity with anyone including the Dialysis unit owner, saying that pending dues of the dialysis unit will be cleared once the committee set up to look into the payments submit the report.
He ruled out providing an alternate premise to the dialysis unit centre, saying the health services have empaneled four-five centres in Margao to provide dialysis facility under the DDSSY scheme.
After inspecting the annex building housing the dialysis centre which was engulfed with a major fire on Friday evening along with Health Director Dr Sanjay Dalvi, senior health officer Dr Rajnanda Desai, Hospicio MS Dr Ira Almeida, Rane told the media that the building is unsafe, adding that while saying the doctors will decide on the sealing of the premise to avoid any other incident. “This building block has outlived its utility. The dialysis unit owner was told to vacate the premise in 2013, but he is continuing with the facility after he went to the court. We have to take safety precautions since there are children in the adjoining buildings. We will ensure that no other incident takes place in the building,” he said.
Replying to a question, the Health Minister said the Additional Secretary, Health will conduct a probe into the fire accident to ascertain the cause of fire and the stability of the annex building. “I am moving a note to the Health Director seeking a probe into the incident and suggest measures that these incidents should not recur,” he said.
When the media drew the attention to an allegation made by Aam Aadmi Party that the Health Director Dr Dalvi had animosity with the dialysis owner, Rane shot back, “There’s no question of any animosity. There are allegations over the payments. After examining the allegations, I have found out there was a committee constituted to look into the payments of the dialysis owner. Let the committee submit its report and we will take the decision. The Director alone is not running the department,” Rane added.
