Hazaribagh, Arif Property worth lakhs of rupees has been gutted due to a sudden fire in Jharkhand Government’s only State Geological Laboratory in front of Ranchi Patna Road Circuit House in Hazaribagh city at around 6 am on Wednesday. Thankfully, due to the readiness of the night guard, some employees living inside the office premises informed the fire department on time. Firefighters came and brought the fire under control within an hour. Due to this, a big accident has been saved. The Divisional Office of the Mines and Geology Department jointly has six separate offices under one roof. In this, apart from the only geological laboratory of the state, Additional Director Geology, Deputy Director Geology, Assistant Director District Geology, Deputy Director Mining and District Mining Office are included.
In the preliminary information, it was told that due to the fire, the table, chair, important papers kept in some almirah, CCTV camera wire, laboratory door, window, related items were burnt to ashes due to the fire. At the same time, the entire office complex has turned black due to the fire. Officials are assessing the burnt material. Let us tell you that 100 KV solar plant has been installed by the department to keep the electricity system in order in all the offices. It was being installed for about a week. Instead of keeping the big machines of the solar plant on the side, they have been kept in the verandah of the office premises.
By late evening on Tuesday, the responsible personnel of the agency, who set up the solar plant, finalized the work. Some office workers are telling that they could not fix the technical fault in it and people left. It caught fire at about six in the morning. The night watchman gave this information to the personnel living in the office premises. The personnel called the fire department personnel and told them. After this the fire brigade came and extinguished the fire. It took about an hour for the fire brigade personnel to control the fire. Here Tuesday is a holiday in the government office. Officers and workers were beating their heads seeing the incident of arson in their office. He is worried that now how and where he will sit and do the work. An officer told that there is a lot of work load. Above all, this kind of incident has increased the concern.
The office complex is of two floors. Government laboratory is operated in the ground floor. In the state laboratory, reports are prepared after officially examining the mineral wealth such as lime, stone, coal, mica, water and other wealth obtained from all the 24 districts of Rajbhar. Later this report is sent to the concerned district. For this, apart from chemists, dozens of officers (women/men) related to other information are working in the laboratory. All the officers are engaged in different types of training in the laboratory everyday.
If the fire in the laboratory was not extinguished on time, there could have been a big loss due to fire in the other five offices. Officers of all five offices have heaved a sigh of relief after finding their offices safe. The officials were heard talking among themselves that the fire broke out due to the negligence of the agency personnel in the installation of the solar plant installed by GERDA in the office premises. After investigating the whole matter, action has been demanded against the agency and the culprits.