fire safety procedures at government hospitals in the region. He said, “Those who are not found to be fully compliant will be issued a final notice.” According to Ayush Prasad, CEO of Pune Zilla Parishad, legal action would be taken based on the degree of the danger. The District Planning and Development Council has allocated around INR 7 crore to 27 rural hospitals in Pune, which also includes the 300-bed District Hospital in Aundh, for the remaining works like water sprinkler installation and fire hydrant installation.
During a visit to Aundh district hospital with Prasad and other officials, Deshmukh spoke about the audit visit. He said, “In rural areas, after the fire audit, we had approved 27 locations where an amount of Rs 7 crore was sanctioned for filling the gaps and meeting deficiencies. I took a review and out of 27, 18 hospitals were found to have completed the work”. He added that the remaining hospitals have been given time until November 20 to finish the job. As per the district administration report, fire audits had been conducted at 722 hospitals out of 737 hospitals in the district as of May 24.
The district collector issued a number of directives to the authorities while inspecting the hospitals, including finding hospitals that have not yet been audited for fire and electrical safety and performing fire drills at significant sites. Deshmukh said, “There are fire extinguishers in place but most of the time people do not know how to operate them”. Dr Ashok Nandapurkar, district civil surgeon, spoke about the work underway. He said, “District hospital at Aundh is located in an old building and there is a requirement for an underground tank and alarm system, which are being installed”.
