Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 20: Though the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and General Administration Department (GAD) reports have established kerosene oil as the cause of devastating fire in the Civil Secretariat Srinagar on July 11, the responsibility has yet not been fixed and those who had brought and kept the inflammable material in the wooden block have remained unpunished during the past over three months. Even the parallel enquiry started by the police by formally lodging FIR remains inconclusive till date.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that enquiry into the major fire incident conducted by the then Secretary, General Administration Department has corroborated the findings of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) that kerosene oil and not the electric short circuit was the cause of devastating blaze in the wooden block of the Civil Secretariat.
“During the GAD enquiry, which was ordered soon after the incident on July 11, 2013, in order to enquire into the circumstances leading to outbreak of fire and to look into the response of the concerned departments, it was established that fire started from the closed room of Vice-Chairman of Gujjar-Bakerwal Advisory Board and was caused by the kerosene oil”, sources said.
However, it has not been mentioned in the report as to how and who had brought the kerosene oil and for what purpose, sources further said, adding “the GAD enquiry has left this aspect to be probed by the Police, which has also registered FIR into the fire incident, in the absence of any evidence available to draw any conclusion in this regard”.
In this way, the GAD enquiry has corroborated the findings of FSL, which had detected enough kerosene oil residues at the site of fire. The FSL had lifted nine samples from the site of fire on the same day of incident as well as on the very next day and kerosene oil remains were detected in samples lifted on both the days, sources said. “This clearly indicates that there was a sabotage behind the fire that destroyed important record of several departments in the wooden block adjacent to the main building of Civil Secretariat”, sources added.
In response to a question, sources said, “the GAD enquiry report is mainly recommendatory in nature and its findings and observations have also been shared with the Police, which however, has not yet reached to any logical conclusion into the case till date”.
“It is a matter of concern that despite lapse of over three months and common finding of enquiries by two different departments, responsibility has not been fixed and the erring officials remain unpunished”, sources regretted, adding “how the Government could be so slack in identifying and punishing those whose act led to gutting of official record”.
The failure to fix the responsibility and to identify the persons, who had brought and kept the kerosene oil in the wooden block is being interpreted in the official circles in different manner. “It is stated in the official circles that during the departmental enquiries only inferences can be drawn as the civil officers are not the professionals like the police and departmental enquiries are generally ordered to supplement the main enquiry”, sources said.
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