Chavan rules out sabotage in Mantralaya building fire

Ruling out the possibility of sabotage in the Mantralaya fire, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, on Tuesday, rejected the opposition’s demand for a judicial probe into the incident.

Ruling out the possibility of sabotage in the Mantralaya fire, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, on Tuesday, rejected the opposition’s demand for a judicial probe into the incident. Five persons were killed and several important documents were destroyed in the June 21 fire.

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Responding to the debates in both the houses of the legislature, Chavan said that preliminary reports from various agencies had stated that no traces of inflammable material or explosive residue were found at the site, thus, proving the absence of sabotage or negligence.

“The reports show that the fire did not originate from the server room but from a UPS switch box on the fourth floor. No one actually set the building on fire,” said Chavan.

Earlier, in the assembly, opposition leader Eknath Khadse had questioned whether the police would come out with facts and nail those responsible for the fire. He wanted the government to name the guilty in the first information report filed by the Marine Drive police station.

Vinod Tawde, opposition leader in the upper house, sought to know who would take responsibility for the loss of five lives in the fire.

Tawde demanded that a case of culpable homicide be registered against the CM and public works minister Chhagan Bhujbal.

Reacting to the opposition’s demand, Chavan said: “We will not spare anybody if the final probe reports come out with evidence.”

He urged the opposition to refrain from politicising the issue.

While 64,400 files were lost in the fire, the files pertaining to Adarsh, Sea Rock hotel and Lavasa cases are safe, he said.

“After losing the Adarsh file earlier, we had got all the important files scanned.”

Admitting that there were flaws in the disaster management system in the Mantralaya, Chavan assured that the mistakes would be rectified during the renovation of the building later in the year.

Elaborating on the renovation plan, Chavan said that the top floors that have been destroyed in the blaze would get new fire systems.

The offices on the top floors would also be made spacious by extending the existing corridors, following which the work on the lower floors would begin.

The state government would also conduct a sensitisation programme that will be extended to all public buildings that need to become fire-proof.