Even as the fire engulfing the Satpura Bhawan – the second most important government offices’ complex after the state secretariat in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal – was finally controlled after 20 hours, politics kept on raging over the issue.
Opposition Congress is alleging that the fire incident could be a conspiracy to destroy the evidence of corruption. Former chief minister and state Congress president Kamal Nath asked whether the fire started by itself or was started deliberately. Nath demanded a probe by an independent agency and later in the day, the Congress demanded a judicial probe into the incident in a press conference by media department chief K.K. Mishra.
Mishra raised several questions regarding the incident pointing out that there have been previous incidents of fire in crucial government departments just before or after Assembly polls. He made a major allegation that among the documents destroyed were those related to scams in the health department that were allegedly undertaken during the Covid-19 period to collect funds to pay back to a Union minister who “had given a loan of Rs 1,250 crores to pull down the Kamal Nath government in the state”.
He asked whether the fire at Satpura Bhawan was “sponsored, planned and human-made so that evidence of the mega corruption and scams could be destroyed”. He said that the governor should fix the accountability of the officials in this case and order a judicial probe.
Mishra also questioned the ‘atmanirbhar’ (self-reliant) status of Madhya Pradesh when the army had to be called to douse the fire in one of the most crucial government offices in the state capital.
Questions over fire safety arrangements
The incident has also raised serious questions over the fire safety arrangements in the crucial government buildings in the state capital, as it took as many as 20 hours to completely douse the fire and that too with the help of the army.
There are reports that the internal fire safety arrangements in the sixth floor of Satpura Bhawan failed to work and the building layout made it difficult for the fire tenders to reach the spot.
The only fortunate thing was that all people from the building could be evacuated before the fire took a massive form, thus preventing loss of life and limb.
The MP Human Rights Commission (MPHRC) took suo motu cognizance of the incident and questioned the failure of the Bhopal Municipal Commission (BMC) fire team in controlling the fire in time.
Quoting reports, MPHRC chairman Manohar Mamtani and member Rajiv Tandon said that the reason for this failure was untrained fire fighters and inadequate and outdated equipment. About 80 per cent of the fire fighters of the BMC are daily wagers with no practical training. In this view, the human rights panel served notices on Bhopal Collector Ashish Singh and Municipal Commissioner K.V.S. Choudhary, seeking report and reply following a probe within three weeks.
There are reports that 12,000-16,000 files of important documents of the health department and the tribal area development programmes (TADP) directorate were burnt down in the fire that engulfed the top four floors of Satpura Bhawan. Among the documents are those related to inquiry into complaints of health department officials/employees registered with economic offences wing and Lokayukta.
Infrastructure and accessories worth crores of rupees at the sixth floor office of health department were burnt down. The office had been recently renovated at a cost of Rs 10 crore.
As the fire kept raging for hours, the basic structure of the 40-year-old government building is likely to have weakened drastically.
Home minister Narottam Mishra sought to downplay the documents’ destruction saying that in the digital age, it is possible to recreate the documents and also the digital versions are available. As for Congress’ allegations, he said that the opposition party never comes forth to help but only looks for opportunities to politicize even such serious incidents.
The fire had started at the TADP office on the third floor around 4.00pm on Monday apparently due to a short circuit and took the fourth, fifth and sixth floors housing health directorate office in its ambit by late evening. The fire kept raging throughout the night despite efforts by fire tenders of various departments and agencies like the CISF and army. The fire could be finally controlled by 7.00 am on Tuesday. However, it was rekindled at around 9.30 on the sixth floor and could be controlled only by noon.
The four member probe team constituted by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited the spot for investigation. Aditional Chief Secretary, Home, Rajesh Rajora, Principal Secretaries of Urban Administration and Public Works Department Neeraj Mandloi and Sukhbir Singh respectively, and Additional Director General (Fire) Ashutosh Rai are the members of the team.
Rajora said that technical teams were looking into various points and the probe report will be made public in three days. Home minister Mishra also said that the report by the committee will be available in three days.