The incident that happened in Vijayawada yesterday, with respect to the fire accident in Swarna Palace was a tragic one. It resulted in the loss of several people, and in the injuries of many others.
The fire broke out because of a short circuit, which then engulfed the entire hotel and spread throughout. It was pretty evident that the hotel failed to maintain any proper safety measures, which resulted in the short circuit.
Hotel Swarna Palace was rented by a private hospital in Vijayawada, Ramesh Hospital, to facilitate Coronavirus patients who were receiving treatment for the same. Neither the hospital management, nor the hotel management have responded properly to the incident, which is very irresponsible on their part.
On the other hand, the government has announced an amount of Rs. 50 Lakhs as the ex-gratia to all the families who have lost their kin in the accident. A similar thing happened when the government announced Rs. 1 Crore as ex-gratia to every family who lost their kin in the LG Polymers accident. The thing is, both of these accidents took place in private institutions and not in government institutions.
It would have made sense for the government to announce an ex-gratia in case these incidents took place in government run institutions. With the government announcing an ex-gratia, despite the fact that these incidents took place in private institutions is something to worry about.
This is because there are strong rumors going that the government has close ties with the people who run both Swarna Palace and LG Polymers, because of which the government is trying its best to cover these incidents up with money.
Also, the saddest part is that the government is giving away the money of the people during these incidents, which is supposed to be used for the betterment of the state.