Bhubaneswar, Jan 9: Odisha government is in the line of fire as different organisations continue to stage protests demanding action against Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital and compensation to the victims who recently died due to the AC compressor blast at the private medical college in Bhubaneswar and subsequent identity mix-up controversy.

The members of All Odisha Students' Voice on Tuesday staged a gherao and hurled tomatoes at the Health Minister, Niranjan Pujari’s official residence in Bhubaneswar.

“The government is yet to announce any compensation for victims who died in the blast. We demand ex-gratia of Rs 1 crore each for the relatives of deceased persons. The government should also cancel the license of the private medical college and the arrest of its owner,” said Tirupati Panigrahi, one of the protesters.

The workers of Chhatra Congress, the student wing of the opposition Congress party, had also demonstrated before the house of Pujari demanding action against the private medical college and its owner on Monday. They accused the state government of shielding Panigrahi who is a leader of the ruling BJD.

The Congress workers also sought compensation of Rs 50 lakhs each for the three workers who died in the explosion.

Meanwhile, BJP has also demanded monetary compensation for the victims’ families and cancellation of license of the Hi-Tech Medical College.

The party also questioned how patients with 90 per cent burns could be treated at Hi-Tech Hospital which has no facility for burn patients.

The BJP also demanded that the hospital authorities should be booked under section 306 of the IPC (Abetment of suicide) for the suicide of victim Dillip Samantray’s pregnant wife, Soumyashri Jena.

Notably, the hospital wrongly declared Samantray dead in place of another victim Jyoti Ranjan Mallik on December 30. A grief-stricken Soumyashri Jena died of suicide on January 1.

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On other hand, Samantray too succumbed to injuries on January 6. Three persons out of the four engaged in the repairing of the AC compressor of the Hospital have died after the blast occurred on December 29. (IANS)

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