Hyderabad, October 12: It is believed there was a sabotage behind the major fire that broke out in the second floor of the Revenue Land Records section of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) complex at Tarnaka on Sunday night.
“It is a clear case of sabotage. The fire took place only in one pocket, the land acquisition wing. As the entire complex has a common cable wiring system, the fire should have spread to all sections but it did not happen,” HMDA Staff and Workers Union president YS Ramesh told Expresso. He demanded a thorough enquiry into the incident to bring the culprit to book.
“How can there be a fire in steel almirahs when they are locked. There is something fishy about the whole affair. Earlier also such incidents of ORR files being burnt had taken place,” Ramesh said.
The CBI enquiry into alleged changes of alignments in the Outer Ring road project and land acquisitions might have been behind it. With the Andhra Pradesh High Court directing the HMDA to submit relevant documents pertaining to ORR land acquisition and alignments, at least 7,000 to 8,000 ORR files could have been gutted, according to Ramesh.
The ORR project director, Siddarth Jain however told Expresso that land records and acquisition files relating to the ORR are safe. Only some 10 per cent files relating to Shamshabad, Narsingi, Kotwalguda were affected due to the fire, he said.
Jain said that electrical short-circuit could be one of the reasons for the mishap. Many computers and networking systems, tables, chairs, almirahs and air conditioners were gutted in the fire.
The land records section has been shifted to another place. Things would be brought to normal shape in another seven to eight days, Jain said. A case has been booked with Osmania University police and they are investigating.
–Agencies