CANACONA: Call it a miracle or extra vigilance of fire services personnel, but the office of Deputy Town and Country Planner situated on the first floor of the municipal market building, which went up in flames late Tuesday night, remained unscathed even as reports of fire sabotage have become talk of the town.
Residents, who suspect foul play, claimed that the fire was actually aimed to destroy the files and records stored in the office of the Deputy Town Planner, housed on the second floor of the building.
Non-establishment of source of fire has given further credence to residents casting aspersions that the fire incident could be the act of sabotage.
“No files or any documents from the office of the Deputy Town & Country Planner, Canacona, got affected due to the fire,” informed Canacona fire station in-charge Namdev Parwar.
“In fact, soon after bringing the fire on the ground floor under control and after taking due permission of the authorities concerned, we broke open all the three rooms of the office of the Deputy Town Planner to check if any immediate salvage operations are needed and found everything intact,” said Parwar.
Incidentally, several residents from near and far off rushed to the spot, as only one issue was hotly discussed that the fire was a deliberate attempt to destroy the files and documents housed in the office of the Deputy Town Planner.
It is reportedly learnt that that present Canacona Deputy Town Planner Zaidev R Aldonkar was contacted on Tuesday midnight asking for his presence to ensure safety in the office during the fire fighting operations, but considering his place of residence, he reportedly informed that it will take another one-and-half hours to reach Chaudi.
Considering that so much time cannot be lost, verbal permission was reportedly obtained from Canacona Mamlatdar Ravishekar Nippanikar and in the presence of Canacona PI Harischandra, PSI Prashal Dessai; the locks of the three rooms were broke open.
“Even though we found everything intact, temperatures were exceptionally high in the three rooms housing the cabin of Deputy Town Planner, Technical Section and Administrative Section of the office. The temperatures were brought down and soon in the presence of PSI, all the three rooms were sealed and policemen were placed outside to guard the office,” informed Namdev Parwar.
When contacted, Canacona executive assistant engineer (Electricity) Santosh Lolayekar denied that short circuit could be the cause. “It could not be ascertained that short circuit is the cause of fire. It could be something else also.”
