A significant fireplace in Madhya Pradesh authorities’s Satpura Bhawan in Bhopal that homes necessary departments akin to well being, transport and tribal affairs on Monday, became a political tussle between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) and the Opposition Congress on Tuesday.
Whereas the Congress alleged “corruption” and “foul play” within the large fireplace that engulfed round 12,000 authorities information, the BJP rejected the allegations and ordered a high-level committee to probe into the incident.
In accordance with authorities officers, among the many 12,000 information burnt have been these associated to circumstances pertaining to irregularities in expenditure throughout Covid-19 interval and funding of assorted businesses.
“The information of file room, coordination wing, dispensary, criticism wing, household planning, nursing, finance, pension, CM monitoring, public criticism and blood transfusion wing have been affected essentially the most,” a senior authorities official mentioned, requesting anonymity.
Information associated to 62 complaints towards the well being division pending with the Financial Offences Wing (EOW) and the Lokayukta have been additionally gutted, the official mentioned, including that inquiries have been at completely different levels in these circumstances.
Final 12 months, the state authorities bought tools for radiology, pathology and different departments for ₹434 crore. A number of complaints have been lodged in varied districts about high quality of the tools. Officers mentioned that information associated to inquiries into these complaints have been burnt.
“Information associated complaints concerning switch of nursing workers have been additionally saved within the file room,” a senior officer of well being division mentioned.
Well being division commissioner Sudam Khade, nonetheless, mentioned, “The procurement of machines was accomplished by the company so the information associated to buy is unbroken. The data of complaints towards medical doctors, providers and high quality was there within the constructing.”
Officers from the EOW and Lokayukta refused to touch upon the information misplaced, saying they haven’t obtained any communication from the well being division on this regard.
On Tuesday, former chief minister and state Congress president Kamal Nath alleged that the fireplace incident was an instance of “corruption”.
“The fireplace at Satpura Bhawan is a matter of grave concern. As of now, state authorities has knowledgeable that 12000 information have been destroyed however this ought to be probed by an unbiased company whether or not it was an accident or conspiracy,” Nath mentioned in a tweet in Hindi. “There’s a large corruption concerned in it.”
In the meantime, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a assessment assembly at his residence. “The CM has constituted a high-level committee for the investigation,” state’s well being minister Prabhuram Chaudhary mentioned after the assembly.
Chaudhary refuted the allegations of conspiracy, saying, “There have been no such necessary paperwork within the workplaces. Congress’s allegations are baseless. Greater than 4,000 workers used to work, why would somebody do such a conspiracy.”
Extra chief secretary, house, Rajesh Rajoura, who’s a part of the high-level inquiry committee constituted on the directions of the chief minister, mentioned, “We’ve got visited the positioning. A committee of three consultants – electrical security, ANM wing and forensic crew is investigating. We are going to go to once more tomorrow [Wednesday] and submit the report in three days.”
Congress leaders additionally raised the query on why the administration didn’t use the hydraulic fireplace ladder bought by the state authorities for ₹5.5 crore to douse ablaze in high-rise buildings. The hydraulic ladder was out there simply 50 metres from the Satpura Bhawan, they added.
Dwelling minister Narottam Mishra, nonetheless, mentioned, “There was no area to make use of the hydraulic ladder.”
The fireplace began within the third ground of the federal government constructing and later reached until sixth ground. The military together with 50 fireplace tenders of Airport Authority, BPCL, IOCL, BHEL and municipal company doused the fireplace in 20 hours, mentioned Harinarayan Chari Mishra, commissioner of police, Bhopal.
A fireplace security officer, requesting anonymity, mentioned that fireplace extinguishers put in within the constructing couldn’t be activated. “The water distribution community has been laid in Satpura constructing below the fireplace security system, however resulting from lack of pipe water couldn’t be used to extinguish the fireplace within the six-storey constructing that’s 80-feet excessive,” the fireplace security officer mentioned.