TDP general secretary Varla Ramaiah has accused the government of adopting ‘double standards’ regarding the probe into the fire at Swarna Palace, a hotel-turned-COVID care facility, which claimed 10 lives.
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‘Authorities to blame’
Addressing the media on Sunday, the TDP leader sought to know how P. Ramesh Babu, managing director of Ramesh Hospitals which took the hotel on lease for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, could be held solely responsible, claiming that the Krishna district officials ran a quarantine centre for foreign returnees out of the same hotel earlier.
“Rather, the government is to blame if the hotel is running for years without obtaining the mandatory fire safety and security clearances. The district officials, Fire Services Department and even the police should face action for allowing the hotel in this regard,” Mr. Ramaiah pointed out.
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“It is out of vengeance against a particular caste that the government has ordered to arrest Dr. Ramesh Babu,” he alleged. Mr. Ramaiah further asserted that there was proof of the government having run a quarantine facility at the hotel.
“For this, the officials signed a pact with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for allowing more than 15 hotels including Swarna Palace in Vijayawada for quarantining the foreign returnees for 14 days. Dr. Ramesh Babu took the hotel on lease for running the COVID-19 facility and obtained all the necessary permissions. When the government did not find any violations of safety norms at the hotel before opening a quarantine centre there, it would be untenable to blame Dr. Ramesh Babu for opening a COVID care centre there,” he added.