Where is our collective conscience today? While the media and social media remain consumed by the Rajya Sabha elections, the devastating fire at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack that claimed 11 lives, is quietly fading from public debate.

In the 2016 fire at SUM Hospital, the owner Manoj Nayak was arrested and Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak resigned. Today, despite a bigger tragedy at the state’s premier government hospital, accountability is missing. When politics overshadows human lives, public trust stands gravely betrayed.