By IANS,
Mumbai : NCP chief and union minister Sharad Pawar Friday praised the city disaster management, rescue teams and fire brigade for their efficient handling of Thursday’s Mantralaya fire and rescuing over 60 people trapped in the building.
Pawar, who rushed to Mumbai from New Delhi, inspected the fire-ravaged Mantralaya (state secretariat) premises from outside Friday afternoon.
He held a meeting with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to discuss the fallout of the tragedy that claimed five lives and left 16 injured.
“This is not the occasion to indulge in any mud-slinging or hurling allegations. This tragedy has shocked Maharashtra, and all political parties should work together to recover from it,” Pawar said while addressing media persons.
He also said the state government should consider redeveloping the building as Maharashtra deserved a good administrative headquarters in the state capital.
Pawar, a three-time former state chief minister, said he spoke to the rescue teams and fire brigade officials who informed that their prime concern was to rescue people trapped inside the building.
“They said that saving the structure was secondary, saving lives was their primary concern… I feel that they have done their job,” Pawar said.
When Pawar learnt of the incident in New Delhi, he immediately called up the National Disaster Management officials and sought their expert opinion on the tragedy.
“In the meeting, the officials said that even without inspecting the Mantralaya building, they could point to a structural fault to be the key reason for a fire to continuously burn for more than seven to eight hours,” Pawar said.
However, since a full-fledged structural audit is currently underway, Pawar said any formal statement can be made after it is completed.
“The chief minister briefed me about the situation in details. He said the damage assessment can only be made after the structural and fire audit,” he added.
Dismissing contentions that the incident could be a sabotage, Pawar pointed out that the preliminary investigation into the matter was currently on and it would not be proper to make such allegations.
Meanwhile, Mumbai police have formed four teams to investigate the fire and find out the causes — whether it was an accident, negligence, or sabotage.
The time-frame for the investigation, ordered by Prithviraj Chavan last evening, is not yet known.
Similarly, a structural audit of the entire 5,17000 square feet building spread over more than 12 acres, started with teams of the Public Works Department, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, fire brigade and other experts, inspecting each and every beam and column.
While the audit of the Mantralaya Annexe building would be completed by Friday night, the main building audit is expected to be taken up Saturday as the cooling operations are still underway after the blaze was doused Friday afternoon after nearly 20 hours.
Chavan has made it clear that nobody would be permitted to enter the Mantralaya premises until the structural and fire audits were completed by the authorities.
However, he did not comment as to whether the fire-ravaged Mantralaya would be repaired and renovated or demolished to make way for a new structure.