Pm For Rewarding Theatre Fire-Fighters

Prime Minister I K Gujral yesterday said that fire accidents like that happened on Friday at Uphaar cinema claiming 60 lives "upsets every sensitive human mind" and adequate measures should be taken to prevent such tragedies.

Visiting the injured in the fire accident at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) immediately after his three-day visit to Shimla, Gujral enquired about the conditions of the 31 patients from the doctors. Appreciating timely rescue operations by Delhi fire services and other administrative wings, he said those who fought fire bravely in rescuing those trapped in the cinema hall screening a multi-starer film 'Border', "should be rewarded".

He visited S K Dheri, chief of Delhi Fire Services admitted in AIIMS here, who was injured while leading the rescue team at the site of the tragedy.

Gujral also visited the adjacent Safdarjung Hospital to know about the injured admitted there.

He was accompanied by the minister of state for health Renuka Chowdhury, Lt Governor of Delhi Tejinder Khanna and the Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma, besides senior officials.

The director of AIIMS, Dr P K Dave, took the Prime Minister to various wards and briefed him about the progress of patients. As many as 31 patients are admitted in AIIMS including eight in the intensive care unit, while about half a dozen are admitted in the Safdarjung Hospital.

Verma blamed the cinema hall management for the "gruesome incident" saying that managerial staff had not taken "adequate security measures".

To prevent such accidents in future the delhi government had already instructed all its administrative wings to oversee the fire prevention measures taken in high rise buildings and all cinema halls, he added.

Verma said that government was even prepared to help the victims who were convalescing in private hospitals and added that all the health needs of the injured inthe government hospitals were being looked after.