By IANS,
Kolkata: The West Bengal government Saturday denied it was shirking responsibility in the AMRI hospital fire, saying the two state representatives in the hospital’s board of directors were not involved in the day to day governance.
“They only attend board meetings. So where is the question of shirking responsibility?” Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh told a journalist in reply to a question.
As per records with the Registrar of Companies, the state government has 1.99 percent stake in Advanced Medicare Research Institute (AMRI) hospital, with private companies Emami and Shrachi Groups cornering together 98.01 percent.
The hospital, where a devastating fire Friday killed 91 people, mostly patients, was co-founded by the two private companies with the state government in 1996.
Earlier, the state-owned Niramoy Polyclinic was transferred to a consortium floated by S.K. Todi of the Shrachi Group and Swapansadhan Bose. Later, the Emami group replaced Bose.
Initially, the government had a stake of 49 percent, while the rest was with the two private groups. But as the private stakeholders injected fresh investments and built two more blocks, the state government’s stake progressively came down.
As per the ownership document, the government has two nominees on the board, with a senior official – the director of medical education – as chairman.
Soumendranath Banerjee, who retired as DME, stepped down after his superannuation two months back. The new DME Sushanta Banerjee is now a board member. Veteran medical practitioner Pronab Dasgupta is the other government nominee in the 14-member board of directors.