Odisha CM Patnaik announces Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia for Sum hospital fire victims

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each for the kin of those who died in the Sum Hospital fire. Patnaik, who has earlier announced free treatment for the fire victims in different hospitals in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, made this announcement of ex-gratia before leaving for New Delhi. “The Chief Minister has announced the ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each for the victims’ families,” a communication received from the chief minister’s office said. [caption id=“attachment_3060338” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of Naveen Patnaik. PTI[/caption] Earlier, the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) University, which runs the Institute of Medical Sciences and Sum Hospital, had yesterday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the deceased. “The authorities will pay an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of the kin of the deceased persons and bear all medical expenses of all the injured persons,” SOA Vice- chancellor Amit Banerjee had announced on Tuesday. Meanwhile, opposition Congress has demanded Rs 25 lakh compensation for each family of victims. “The state government should give Rs 10 lakh and the Centre needs to provide Rs 15 lakh to each family of victims,” OPCC President Prasad Harichandan said. CPI national secretary D Raja also demanded adequate compensation for the victims’ families besides a high level probe into the fire that killed 21 people.