Opposition remarks on fire baseless: YSR .CID begins probe into secretariat fire

Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy on Friday accused the Opposition parties of making “baseless and cheap” remarks on Thursday’s fire in the D block of the State Secretariat.

Important files and computerised records were safe and there was no scope for any doubts, the Chief Minister told media persons here. All the vital records were safe because the fire did not spread to the several wings on the second floor of the Secretariat, he said.

He dubbed the charges levelled by the Telugu Desam Party, Communist Party of India and CPI (M) “cheap tactics”. His government responded promptly and not only instituted an inquiry by the CB-CID but appointed a three-member committee of senior officials to probe into the accident.

He advised the Opposition to ascertain facts before levelling unwarranted charges.

Hyderabad Special Correspondent adds: After a review, Finance Minister K. Rosaiah and Chief Secretary P. Ramakanth Reddy said only four to five files were found damaged and that too because of the water used by firemen. They put the loss at Rs. 50 lakh.

I. Y. R. Krishna Rao and Ajay Mishra, Principal Secretaries of Finance and IT respectively, said the budget papers and the data in computers were safe, as the fire didn’t touch the 50 servers covering the 3,000 computers in the Secretariat.

“Even if these had been damaged, “mirror data” would be available from the back-up servers functioning from undisclosed location in the Secretariat.

The CB-CID began investigation with M. Punna Rao, IG, visiting the site. Mr. Rosaiah said the inquiry would also identify persons for non-functioning of fire-fighters and alarms in the block.

Media persons who visited the site saw damage was confined to two network rooms located on the second and third floors.

About 100 old-type computers which were dumped in the rooms, two massive switches facilitating connectivity to the computers, computer material and four ACs were burnt along with heavy cables and wiring.
Network rooms

Employees’ attendance in the block was thin, though 400 other computers functioned on the ground and first floors with their network rooms lying below the burnt-out ones being intact.

Suresh Chandra, IT Secretary, said Internet connectivity to computers on the second and third floors would be restored by Monday.The State Government, which insists on high-rise buildings having basic firefighting equipment and standards, is blind to the lack of the same parameters in its own establishments.

The State Secretariat is one such establishment which does not meet basic fire safety
standards. Today’s fire in the D-Block once again exposed the fact that the Secretariat is not a safe place for the thousands of government employees.

The D-Block is one of the recently-constructed buildings on the sprawling premises from where the administration of the State functions. “The building does not even have the automatic fire detection and alarm system though it was a newly constructed one,’’ a fire officer said. The instrument gives an alarm once it detects even smoke from a cigarette which would enable the occupants to run for safety.

Asked about the safety standards in the block, director-general of fire services Aruna Bahuguna said a Hazmath vehicle, which comes handy in dealing with hazardous fire, would be stationed at the Secretariat in the next couple of months.

The D-Block is not the only one which is unsafe for the employees. Several blocks where ministers and senior officials function from also lack the basic standards.

The C-Block or popularly known as Samatha Block, from where the Chief Minister’s Office functions, also lacks the basic fire safety measures, officials said.

In a recent inspection by the AP State Training School, it was found that A, B, C, J and L blocks lack basic safety standards. They are supposed to meet basic parameters like open space around the building for the movement of fire tenders, means of escape, access to building and firefighting installations.

“These high-rise buildings do not have minimum fire equipment like hose reel, wet risers, automatic sprinklers, automatic fire detection and alarm systems,’’ an official said. They are also supposed to have a 75,000-litre capacity tank on the terrace and another 10,000-litre storage capacity tank on the ground. All these blocks do not even had the mandatory emergency exits for evacuation of those trapped inside. Amid a political row over the cause of a fire in the Andhra Pradesh state secretariat which destroyed some official records, the crime branch of the state police and forensic experts Friday launched a probe.

The fire that broke out Thursday on the second and third floors in the D-block of the secretariat, the seat of governance, destroyed the records of finance, information technology and forests departments.

Fire-fighting personnel had to break windows of the office complex to rescue several employees trapped inside.

The incident assumed political overtones after the opposition parties said they suspect foul play. Telugu Desam party and other opposition parties alleged that it was a deliberate attempt by the Congress government to destroy some ’sensitive’ files as it faced defeat in the assembly elections.

The counting of votes polled for Lok Sabha and state assembly elections last month will be taken up on May 16.

Rubbishing the opposition allegations, the government last night ordered a probe by the Crime Branch of the Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID).

A team of officials led by inspector general of police Punna Rao visited the building Friday and gathered clues. Dog squads were also pressed into service.

As employees were not allowed into the premises, they had to stand outside under the hot sun. The CID is likely to question some senior employees of various departments and also the people in charge of the server room as it is believed that sparks in the IT department’s servers led to the fire.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy claimed that all the official records were safe. He told reporters that the data in the computers destroyed in the fire was safe as its backup was stored at some other place.

He said it was an accident but the opposition parties were making baseless allegations. “It is stupidity of the worst order,” he said.

Meanwhile, finance minister K. Rosaiah told reporters at the secretariat that the opposition parties were carrying out a false propaganda against the government. He clarified that the finance department had not lost any important record in the mishap.

Chief Secretary Ramakanth Reddy said all the key files were safe. He said two teams were constituted to conduct a comprehensive probe. He said forensic experts were also conducting an inquiry.

Suresh, secretary, information technology, said the key information in the files kept in D-block was stored safely in another location. He said 200 computers out of 800 in the building were damaged in the fire.

Minister for forests S. Vijayramaraju said all the documents of his ministry were safe as only the servers of the department were destroyed in the fire.

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