A hard day at secretariat amid fire, power cut, water shortage

Regular activities at most of the ministries and divisions housed at the Secretariat were seriously hampered on Thursday after the devastating overnight fire heavily damaged buildings and also disrupted power and water supply in major buildings of the bureaucratic enclave.

Many officials and employees called the day a frightening one while talking to New Age on Thursday, which was also the second consecutive day of the nationwide human chain programme by officials from  25 cadres who are holding protests against what they term as the administration cadre’s dominance in the civil service.

Officials said that the blaze that gutted the upper floors of the eight-storey building known as Bhaban Number 7 that housed at least half a dozen ministries and divisions was cordoned off, shutting down the activities of these offices.

Bhaban Number 7 houses the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Ministry of Youth and Sport; Internal Resources Division, and Financial Institutions Division.

‘It was a frightening day,’ said a Finance Division official as he attended office at the newly built multi-storey finance ministry, close to the gutted building.

Next to the gutted building is the 20-storey Bhaban Number 6, housing a dozen of ministries and divisions, faced power cuts and water supply shortage for hours, causing most officials and employees of the building to leave the Secretariat after the lunch break.

Official activities in other buildings inside the Secretariat were thin since the officials were mostly busy in discussing what caused the fire, whether it was an incidental fire or act of sabotage.

Reporters were barred from entering the Secretariat on the day, facing problems in collecting information.

New Age