Bhopal Satpura Fire: 6 Months To Elections & Thousands Of Govt Files Burnt To Ashes

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The massive fire that engulfed Satpura Bhawan on Monday has gutted thousands of government files, computers and a large number of records. The quantum of damage to documents by fire is yet to be known but it is widely believed that records related to beneficiaries of different schemes have been destroyed in the fire. While this may dash the hopes of beneficiaries, it would also leave the government in troubled water at a time when assembly elections are not far away.

The Satpura Bhawan houses Tribal Welfare Commissioner office, health directorate, forest, Ayush department, higher education department etc. The fire mainly damaged the third, fourth and fifth floor of the building. These floors have offices of Tribal department, Health Directorate etc. It is also reportedly learnt that records of the transport department have also suffered damage due to the fire incident.

In the face of damage to the records, it would be difficult to identify the beneficiaries of certain schemes and this may leave both government and beneficiaries in the tight spot.

CM keeping tab

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is regularly monitoring the firefighting operation. On his directives fire tenders from Bhopal Municipal Corporation, fire brigade of army, IOCL, Airport, CISF, BHEL, Mandideep, Raisen were called to douse the flames.

Home Minister Narottam Mishra, minister for medical education Vishvas Sarang, BMC Mayor Malti Rai reached Saypura Bhawan in the evening to take stock of the situation. Speaking to Free Press, the Mayor said as many as fifty fire tenders including that of the army were deployed to douse the blaze. Along with this , all the 150 water tankers were pressed to bring down the fire.

Yadav sees foul play

Former state Congress president Arun Yadav suspects foul play in the massive blaze at Satpura Bhawan .

The congress leader tweeted at the time that during her Jabalpur visit on Monday, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi had enumerated different scams (of BJP government) and soon the fire incident was reported at Satpura Bhawan.

“Is it an endeavour to burn the documents of the scams, " asked the Congress leader. He went on to say that the fire incident is a harbinger of possible power shift in Madhya Pradesh.

Fire incidents at Satpura Bhawan

Dec 14, 2018. Fire at Satpura Bhawan had damaged many confidential files of government departments

June 25, 2012: Fire had broken out on the third floor of Satpura Bhawan.

AT Vindhayanchal

Nov 28, 2013: A massive fire had engulfed the second floor of Vindyanchal Bhawan in which records of the panchayat and rural development department were gutted. The fire that initially broke out in the establishment office had spread to forty offices.

Another incident of fire incident happened in Vindhyachal on Oct 5, 2015. Fire in Vindhyachal had destroyed files related to question answer of assembly.