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Fire incident in Civil Sectt

Kashmir Times. Dated: 7/15/2013 12:24:30 AM

Dear Editor,
The recent incident of major fire in Civil Secretariat complex in Srinagar before the opening of offices cannot be passed off as a mere incident in isolation. This is mainly for the reason that an old wooden building was gutted in the fire incident but a large amount of records of pensioners, finance department and education department were reduced to ashes for no fault of those whose records have been burnt to ashes. It is a matter of serious concern that after every few years official records of state government employees and pensioners are getted in serious fire incidents and it takes the authorities decades together to complete those documents. In certain cases, it has been noticed that records of pensioners are never re-made even after their death and those aspiring to get their pensioners are equally disappointed. The victims of fire incidents that have taken place about two or three decades back are yet to be compensated. Apart from this, it has also been noticed that there has been an element of sabotage because of major bunglings in government departments. When officials records are reduced to ashes, the investigations take a new direction instead of probe into the bunglings that have resulted in huge losses to state exchequer. A mechanism has to be put in place to complete the recprds that are burnt in fire incidents.
—Syed Shamim Ahmed, Bucchwara,
Srinagar