Massive fire breaks out at MP state secretariat

Raipur: A major fire broke out in the multi-storeyed state secretariat building, named ‘Vallav Bhawan’, here on Saturday.

A jawan of the state disaster response force (SDRF) was injured while fighting the fire, official sources said.

The sanitation workers spotted the fire on the third floor of the building at around 9.30 am and reported the matter to the authorities concerned.

The fire spread to the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of the building, official sources said.

Around 45 fire-tenders were deployed to douse the fire.

Army was called to join the teams of NDRF, SDRF and state police to bring the blaze under control.

“The fire has almost been put out”, Bhopal Municipal Corporation’s fire officer Rameshwar Neel said.

Amid fears of government files being gutted in the inferno, the fire officer said that he has no information regarding this.

Saturday being the official holiday for the state government offices, no employee was present in the state secretariat when the incident took place.

Chief minister Mohan Yadav said that the fire has now been brought under control and a directive has been given to ensure that no such incident recurs in future.

Mr Yadav also constituted a seven-member high level committee headed by additional chief secretary (health) Mohmmed Suleman to probe the incident and submit a preliminary report within three days.

The probe committee has been ordered to submit the final report within a fortnight.

State Congress president Jitu Patwari alleged a conspiracy by the state government in the incident to destroy the evidence of corruption.

Mr Patwari along with the Congress Legislature Party leader Umang Singhar staged a sit-in before the building demanding a CBI probe into the incident.