With inadequate fire safety precautions and equipments, records of Canacona govt complex might go in flames.
Govt building complex, housing various govt offices without any fire safety measures in place and literally no fire fighting equipments and inadequate access for fire tenders all records of the Canacona Taluka are at risk of going in smoke in case of any fire emergency.
The lone government complex has almost all public utility offices from deputy collector, mamlatdar, PWD, BDO, WRD, Excise, Sub-registrar, Women and Child Development, treasury to local election offices. With these offices going paperless a distant dream, there are piles of important data and records stored on paper stacked in each and every office which could be a good fodder in case there is a short circuit or any other fire emergency, says a source.
The complex, built over 30 years ago has two narrow gates which makes entry difficult for a fire tender during emergency situations. The electrical wiring undertaken when the complex was built and with other electric load added over the years to the existing load can cause short circuit any time which can trigger a major fire putting the entire records at this offices being wiped out in hours, said another source.
Enquiry at most of the offices revealed that no one has ever given a thought to this burning issue and till now no fire audit has been done for this building. A look in the various offices revealed that there are no fire hydrants to douse fire in case of fire emergency except at the treasury office where stamp papers of high value are kept in custody. The fire station, which is about a kilometre away from this complex, has two fire tenders which are decades old and are used for all types of emergencies not only in the Taluka but attend to emergencies in Quepem taluka.
Ajay Bhagat, ex-chairperson of Canacona Municipality, speaking to Herald on this issue, said, “this is a lone govt complex and has all the important data related to the Taluka and it’s high time that this building is made fire proof. With no security in the night and public holidays, miscreants can easily reach out to the interiors of the offices just by breaking or bending a few iron rods of the grills which can put the records at different offices at great risk,” Bhagat cautioned.
