Secretariat fire

— A major portion of the old secretariat building at the Janata Bhavan complex at Dispur was destroyed in a devastating fire on Wednesday evening. Lost in the process were thousands of important files and documents besides property worth crores of rupees. Curiously enough, this is the third time within a few years that the old secretariat building caught fire, fuelling speculations of a possible sabotage behind the developments. The fact that a number of vital documents pertaining to high-profile corruption cases invariably get destroyed in the fire gives credence to such a theory. Sabotage or not, what, however, the inferno has laid bare is the shoddy fire-safety mechanism in so important a building as the secretariat. More perplexing is the fact that the previous two incidents of fire failed to shake the authorities off their slumber and induce them into initiating sufficient fire-safety measures. A former Chief Secretary has also come up with a startling revelation that a couple of years back the State Government chose to sit over a letter submitted by him, highlighting the potential fire dangers in the building. The whole episode exposes gross human negligence, and a rather cavalier attitude of the Government insofar as disaster preparedness is concerned.

The State Government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the fire but it remains to be seen whether it turns out to be an eyewash, failing to establish anything conclusively. If a high-security government building continues to be gutted by fire in a routine manner, this must be treated as a case of serious security lapse, and those responsible brought to book. The common people are hardly going to be assuaged by the institution of a routine inquiry unless it comes out with concrete facts concerning the fires. Every time a fire razes the old secretariat, the blame is invariably put on a ‘short-circuit.’ While a short-circuit may be the immediate cause of the fire, there is ample room for probing the aspects of human negligence and lack of proper monitoring of a high-security establishment. It is precisely because of our attempts to wrap such matters under the carpet that results in recurrence of such avoidable accidents. The old secretariat, set up in 1973 following the shifting of the State capital from Shilling to Guwahati, has an emotional attachment with the people. The State Government is under an obligation to come up with a truthful account of the incidents of fire and also to ensure that such accidents do not recur due to human negligence. source: assam tribune