Bhopal:

A major fire broke out on the third floor of a building at ‘Vallabh Bhawan’, the Madhya Pradesh secretariat complex, on Saturday morning, but no one was injured and the flames were doused after five hours, officials said.

Army, State Disaster Response Force and police firefighters joined the city fire brigade in the fire-fighting operation.

Sources said the fire broke out around 9:30 am on Saturday as the government offices inside were closed and the premises were almost empty.

#watch | Madhya Pradesh | A fire broke out at the State Secretariat at Vallabh Bhavan in Bhopal. Firefighting operations are underway. Details are awaited. pic.twitter.com/QBto0QSVIy

— ANI (@ANI) March 9, 2024

While Chief Minister Mohan Yadav directed officials to take necessary steps to prevent such incidents from happening in future, state Congress chief Jeetu Patwari alleged that it was a “conspiracy” to destroy evidence of corruption.

Patwari and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Umang Sarang staged a sit-in for hours outside the secretariat, seeking a CBI probe into the fire.

“The fire has almost been put out,” Bhopal Municipal Corporation fire officer Rameshwar Neel told PTI around 3 pm.

He said about 40 to 50 fire engines and water trucks, including some from the Army, were involved in fighting the fire.

Asked whether the sacks containing documents from the Secretariat premises had been removed before the fire, Neil said he had no information to that effect.

Sources said that around 9:30 a.m., some sanitation workers near gates 5 and 6 noticed smoke coming from the building and alerted authorities.

“I was in Bhopal and was informed that there was a fire on the third floor of the old building of Vallabh Bhawan. I asked the collector about the situation and asked the chief secretary to monitor the situation. The fire has been brought under control,” Chief Minister Yadav told reporters .

“A directive has been issued to (take measures) to prevent such incidents and ensure that no files and important documents are destroyed. I hope such incidents will not happen again,” he added.

Patwari claimed that this was the fifth fire incident in Vallabhbhawan since the BJP came to power in 2003.

“Which documents were burned? From which departments?” the Congress leader asked in a statement, claiming the fire was a “conspiracy” of “corruption, debt and crime” by the BJP government to destroy evidence.

Rejecting Patwari’s tirade, BJP spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said the Opposition had not leveled any corruption charges over the years and should instead look at the UPA government’s record.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)