Fire broke out at about 3.30 PM on Monday and raged until Tuesday morning. At 8 am officials announced that the fire was finally out but smoke kept billowing out. Army and Air Force personnel had led the firefight along with teams from NDRF, SDRF, BHEL, Bhopal Municipal Corporation, the airport and nearby industrial areas. Questions are being asked why the administration couldn’t put out the blaze necessitating Army intervention and whether the building had enough fire safety measures.

These questions are expected to be answered by the high-level committee set up the CM which inspected the burnt-out building on Tuesday. Samples were collected for forensic tests.

The fire has exposed Bhopal Municipal Corporation’s lack of preparedness. As the fire raged, BMC fire staff looked helpless. Archaic methods of firefighting hampered the personnel who didn’t lack courage but sorely lacked training and equipment.

The Satpura Bhawan fire has given opportunity to opposition to level major charges on the BJP government. Kamal Nath, chief of the state Congress has claimed that the fire was evidence of BJPs corruption. He also claimed that fire was set intentionally. Nath said “The question is, whether this fire started on its own or was the building set on fire? They claim that 12,000 files have been burnt. No one knows how many thousands of files have been burnt. What is the goal and aim of this fire? This is a matter of corruption and there should be a probe by an independent agency”.

The former CM also alleged that the BJP government is ‘never prepared for any emergency’. The only preparation they know is how to make money” he said. However Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Tuesday dismissed allegations of a conspiracy and said that all records can be retrieved.

On Congress’ allegations that the fire was set on purpose to destroy certain files, the home minister said, “Four thousand people were in the building when the fire started. What kind of conspiracy can there be? The fire started after a blast in the compressor of the air-conditioner. There are people who witnessed it. The Congress party looks for opportunities even during a crisis, but it always fails. They didn’t realize that files have not been destroyed. The files are there in pen-drives, hard disks and even at Vallabh Bhawan”.

The other calamity was political. On June 12 Priyanka Gandhi got a massive response during her day long visit to Jabalpur. The response she got in Jabalpur must have caused concern to Chief Minister Chouhan. She competed with BJP and turned her visit to religious trip. She performed puja at the bank of holy river Narmada while 100 priests recited suitable Mantras. In competition with BJP Congress installed lord Hanuman’s images at the crossings in the city. While performing Puja at Narmada she made five important promises to people which will be implemented if Congress grabs power after elections. The five promises are: Rs. 1500 to every woman, LPG cylinder at Rs. 500, restoration of old pension scheme, 100 units of power free and waiver of farmer loans. In her speech she accused BJP government of 225 scams in 220 months. Priyanka tore into the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government alleging that its “list of scams is longer than Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s list of insults”.

“A bribe raj is being run, forcing you to pay bribes for every small work. If you do not stop it today, then think about what will happen in the future. Scams after scam is happening here” she said. Naming the VYAPAM scam, and alleged scams in the Covid fight., e-tender, ration, scholarships and jobs. How many more scams” Priyanka asked.

While Congress chose Jabalpur for the visit of Priyanka Gandhi, BJP government also chose Jabalpur to launch Ladli Behna Yojana. PCC office bearers argued that Priyanka Gandhi’s programme was scheduled In April while BJP government’s purposely selected Jabalpur for the launch of its flagship scheme Ladli Behna Yojana to off-shoot the Congress function. But the question remains, why did the Congress choose Jabalpur to launch its election campaign?

The answer is simple. Jabalpur is the biggest city in the Mahakaushal area which has a total 38 assembly seats including 13 tribal reserved constituencies. Apart from being the area of PCC chief Kamal Nath’s influence, this is one of those places where the party performed exceptionally well during the 2018 assembly elections. Out of the 38 seats In the region Congress bagged 24 in the last election compared to the BJP’s 13 seats. And 11 out of 13 tribal reserved seats were won by Congress candidates. The BJP won just two. (IPA Service)