Fire breaks out at Transport Dept; BJP smells conspiracy

A major fire at a Delhi Transport Department office on Monday gutted its state-of-the-art operational command centre and destroyed several essential documents, officials said. However, no one was injured in the incident.

Latching on to the incident, the BJP accused the AAP government of being behind the blaze to "hide its failures". According to the Fire Department, it received a call about the blaze at 8.38 am, following which eight fire tenders rushed to the spot.

The fire started from the server room on the first floor and later spread to eight other rooms located on the same floor of the building, Director of Delhi Fire Services Atul Garg said.

The blaze later spread to the second floor of the building, he said. In total, 26 fire tenders were rushed to the spot, he added.

The fire affected a "small portion" of the office premises in which state-of-the-art operational command and control centre was gutted, Special commissioner (Transport) K K Dahiya said.

"Our preliminary enquiry suggests that the fire started from the diary and dispatch centre and affected 6-7 rooms and the operational command and control centre," he said.

Several essential documents were destroyed in the fire, a Delhi Fire Services official said. The fire was brought under control by 10.20 am, the official said, adding that no one was injured in the incident.

Targeting the AAP, the BJP said it "smells a conspiracy" behind the office fire in which "essential documents were destroyed". Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari alleged attempt was being made by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to hide his "failures".

"I can smell a conspiracy. It could be a conspiracy by Arvind Kejriwal to hide his failures. They cannot escape by burning details of wrongdoings at the government office. Tell me why you could not buy a single bus till now, and now you burnt all the documents," Tiwari tweeted in Hindi.

Former AAP MLA Kapil Mishra, who rebelled against the party and has now been fielded by the BJP from the Model Town assembly constituency, concurred with Tiwari and alleged the Transport Department is the "most corrupt".

"A losing government is busy in erasing marks of its scams. The Transport Department has been the most corrupt departments under the Kejriwal government," Mishra tweeted in Hindi.

"This desperation to burn files is the first indicator of Kejriwal's defeat in this election," he alleged. No immediate reaction was available from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). However, Dahiya asserted that no files of any critical project were destroyed in the fire. Only some files of the planning and secretariat branch were damaged in the blaze, he said.