Patna, Dec. 20: In a bid to ensure the government and private hospitals followed the prescribed fire safety norms, Patna divisional commissioner K.P. Ramaiah today asked district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Singh to form a composite team to monitor them.

The team will comprise a senior officer each from the district administration, building construction department, fire safety department, Patna Municipal Corporation, Patna Electric Supply Undertaking and police. It will raid hospitals to check if they were following fire-fighting norms.

Ramaiah convened a high-level meeting in the capital to discuss the fire safety arrangements in the city hospitals to plug any chance of tragedy like the one at AMRI Hospitals in Calcutta 12 days ago. He directed Patna civil surgeon Dr Lakhendra Prasad to conduct a meeting with the officials of private hospitals and ask them to ensure fire safety standards were duly followed on their premises.

The authorities of hospitals, including those of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) and Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH), were instructed to stop the use of LPG cylinders on their campus. “PMCH and NMCH authorities should study the blueprint of their institutions and find out their shortcomings on the fire safety front and plug them,” Ramaiah said. He asked PMCH and NMCH officials to ensure the attendants of patients did not cook food anywhere on their campus except the community kitchen.

The Telegraph had highlighted shabby fire safety arrangements in most of the hospitals in the city in its December 10 edition. Several of them lack gadgets to fight even minor fire.