Massive Fire At Mumbai Secretariat!

A massive fire gutted three floors of the Maharashtra State Secretariat or Mantralaya in Mumbai just before 3pm today. The headquarters of one of the richest state administrations of the country supposedly had all the modern security equipments including fire detection and alarm systems. Yet, the fire that reportedly started from the clichéd reason of ‘short circuit’ raged on for hours gutting the 4^th, 5^th and the 6^th floors that housed the offices of the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister and of several important cabinet ministries like Home and Urban Development.

While it was a big relief that the all-important block of the city of Mumbai had been evacuated quickly, all trapped people rescued and the fire was brought under control by the joint efforts of the state and central fire fighting authorities basic questions arose about the possible destruction of crucial documents relating to land scams, housing society scams and other pending proposals. Such questions led to speculation about the actual reason of the fire, and, a sabotage theory slowly developed which threatened to transform into another raging controversy.

The Secretariat is located at the plush Nariman Point in South Mumbai which could be the most expensive urban area of India, where an inch of land costs a fortune and a mere square foot of a flat runs into thousands of bucks. The financial capital of India and the hub of the film industry Mumbai has been a city of dreams, but the city holds no guarantee how many of them would be fulfilled. Mumbai witnesses only population that goes on multiplying; only dreams that go on multiplying and only greed and sins that go on multiplying. When these quotients reach unbearable proportions Nature wreaks her vengeance on the indifferent city and attracted by the bland display of dirty wealth terrorists strike at will here.

Mumbai thus is a city where anything is possible at any time. No point crying conspiracy if the original documents of the Adarsh Society Scam and other crucial schemes have been destroyed, because more Adarsh scams will be created and more lucrative deals will be realized by the city’s unstoppable cycle of wealth in an inevitable way. Creating wealth is the city’s religion and the cycle of destruction keeps it under bearable limits. That’s all.

Yet, the life in Mumbai goes on, as usual. The common man goes on struggling to earn the bread and the butter—unmindful, unperturbed and perhaps resigned to Mumbai!

As per reports that came in late three charred bodies had been recovered from the sixth floor of the secretariat, thus putting the toll at three dead and around fifteen  injured.