Secretariat fire destroys over 46,400 files: Chavan

The fire at the State Secretariat building destroyed over 46,400 files, said Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Prithviraj Chavan, on Tuesday.

He was addressing the Legislative Council regarding the status of the investigation into the fire.

Mr Chavan said the task of recreating those files is underway and about 10 per cent of the work has already been completed.

“We have the internal Document Journey Management System which tracks all Government files. Using this system we could arrive at the approximate figure,” he said.

Referring to the perception among people that the fire was not an accident but an act of sabotage, Mr Chavan said, “This is a mater of concern for the administration.”

“All preliminary investigations by the Police and Forensics Department have indicated that the fire was an accident. Additional investigations are underway,” said the CM.

fire fighting systems

Admitting that the fire fighting systems are not state-of-the-art in the building, the Chief Minister said when the fire broke out, an alarm went off on the fourth floor, but its sound was so low that it was barely audible.

Mr Chavan observed that while fire tenders used by the Mumbai fire brigade were not state-of-the-art, the tenders sent by the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation for fighting the blaze at the Secretariat were sophisticated and capable of fighting the fire.

Earlier, the leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Mr Eknath Khadse, said the question whether the fire was an accident or a deliberate act continues to linger in the minds of the people.

On a lighter note he said the fire has destroyed files relating to all the scams plaguing the Maharashtra Government. Therefore, the Government is now corruption free.

Mr Khadse said he was a witness to the fire and observed all the operations from close quarters.

The first few fire tenders deployed for extinguishing the fire ran out water with a few minutes.

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