A major fire raged in the Maharashtra Mantrayala or secretariat here Thursday, with a man who escaped claiming that some 50 people were trapped in the building. Two killed and 16 people have been injured in the fire.
Scores of people were perched on some of the balconies waiting to be rescued as thick black columns of smoke billowed out of the windows of the sprawling building in the heart of Mumbai.
There was no immediate report of any casualty but several people were suspected trapped on the upper floors and terrace, prompting authorities to press into service contingents of the elite commandos of Force One and city police's Quick Response Teams. Two teams from the naval dockyard were also rushed.
Panic gripped the sprawling building, the seat of state administration, after the fire, first noticed around 2.45 pm, spread swiftly to fifth, sixth and seventh floors.
Towering plumes of blinding smoke soon engulfed the building making it difficult for the fire brigade to evacuate the stranded.
According to sources, nearly 5,000 people vacated the building within 20 minutes of the fire breaking out.
Fire brigade personnel with huge hydraulic ladders were seen bringing down those trapped.
Choking in thick black smoke, several people were seen standing precariously on the parapet and balconies, waiting to be rescued. Many could be seen rappelling down the ropes and drain pipes in a desperate attempt to escape.
According to sources, the Urban Development Department, which is embroiled in a controversy over the Adarsh scam, and departments of Home, Revenue and Industries were the worst affected by the fire.
The offices of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and his Deputy Ajit Pawar on the sixth floor were also damaged.
An eye witnesses said some people were injured but no immediate official confirmation was available.
Pachpute said he heard a blast soon after the blaze started. Though his staff used fire extinguishers to put out the flames, it spread rapidly.
"I ran down and pulled out my cabinet colleague Jayant Patil from his third floor cabin," Pachpute said.
Animal Husbandry Minister Madhukar Chavan said he heard several blasts in the air-conditioners at he attempted to escape.
Pachpute said the fire brigade started its work around 3.05 pm, nearly 20 minutes after the blaze started.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik, who arrived at the spot, said the rear portion of the building had suffered the maximum damage but did not confirm if anyone was injured.
Efforts to douse the flames were hampered by winds, he said.
To persistent questions if Adarsh files had been destroyed in the fire, he said, "Our primary concern is to sort out the situation, to rescue people."
Chief Minister Chavan and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar were superivising efforts to quell the fire and rescue the trapped.
Meanwhile, the Navy has pressed into service two helicopters that hovered over the Mantralaya to rescue those who might have been stuck.
The SIT probing the TP Chandrasekharan murder case held the main accused Kodi Suni on Thursday. It is reported that the other members in the team Kirmani Manoj and Shafi are also under custody now. But police did not reveal from where they were held. It is learnt that the three of them where held from a house in Iritti, Kannur.
It was six months back that Kodi Suni was released from Kannur central jail. With this, among the 7 who was in the team which killed TP, 6 are in custody. Shinoj is the only one left. Sijith, TK Rajeesh and Anoop were held earlier. Kodi Suni is the main accused in Fasal murder case too.
The Central Committee discussed the prevailing political situation in Kerala. After the killing of T. P. Chandrasekharan on May 4, there has been a concerted campaign blaming the CPI(M) for the murder. This campaign has been unleashed by the Central Minister of State for Home, the Chief Minister and the Congress leaders in Kerala. This propaganda was kept up in view of the Assembly bye-election in Neyyattinkara which was held on June 2.
The police investigation is sought to be influenced by the government and the ruling party. The police is trying to implicate leaders of the Party in Kozhikode and Kannur districts.
The Party has condemned the brutal killing and denied any involvement in the incident. The Party has strongly asserted that it does not believe in the elimination of political opponents. The Party leadership has also stated that on enquiry, if it is found that there is involvement of any Party member at any level, strong action will be taken. The Central Committee called upon the Party ranks to unitedly face this anti-Communist campaign and mobilise the people to rebuff the attempts to defame the Party.
The police on Monday registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader P K Basheer, MLA, for making provocative speech leading to murder.
Police said FIR has been lodged with Edavanna Police Station in Malappuram district on complaint of relatives of two brothers, who were hacked to death by masked men last night.
According to the complainants, the duo, Kolakkadan Azad (45) and his brother Kolakkadan Aboobacker (46), were hacked by the assailants following the speech delivered by Basheer at a function few days ago, the police added. Azad and Aboobacker, injured seriously in the attack last night, succumbed in two separate hospitals in Kozhikode Monday morning.
CPI today demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reply to charges of irregularities in allocation of coal blocks instead of evading an answer over the issue.
"The CAG report submitted to Parliament says that the losses incurred by government due to the allocation of coal blocks to private companies is higher than even the 2G scam. The CAG said the coal blocks were alloted when the portfolio was held by the PMO.
"The Prime Minister asserts he is clean but his responsibility would not go by saying so. He should reply what is his responsibility and that of the PMO," CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told reporters here.
"The Prime Minister is trying to evade a reply by saying that he is clean and that his integrity cannot be questioned. PMO had a role in the matter and we demand that he take responsibility for it," he said.
Training his guns on Prime Minister, Reddy wondered why Manmohan Singh remained silent when CPI sought cancellation of licences in the 2G issue in 2008.
"The probe (into 2G scam) was held only after the Supreme Court intervened. What was his responsibility in this," he said.
"How can Singh claim to be clean when 22 MPs were purchased to save his government during the no-confidence motion moved after the Left parties withdrew their support to UPA-I over the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008, the CPI general secretary alleged.
"He can prove his integrity by explaining the PMO's role in coal gate and also the role of his party in purchasing the MPs," he said.
On the petrol price hike, the CPI leader demanded that the Centre and also states should reduce the taxes imposed by them on petroleum products to alleviate the burden on common man.
Slamming Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy for his reported comments that all parties indulged in populist measures, he said it is meaningless to describe the demand for reducing the "abnormally high taxes imposed by the government" as populism.
The CPI general secretary demanded that a white paper be released on the benefits accrued to private companies due to the hike in petro prices.
"How can Reliance company be allowed to export some of its petroleum products at a time when petrol is being imported for domestic consumption," he said.
Alleging that the PMO has urged the Petroleum Ministry to reconsider its decision to disallow Reliance to hike the prices of its petro products from the KG basin, Reddy charged that it is only an attempt to benefit a private company.
Objecting to the subsidies given to corporate companies to the tune of over Rs five lakh crore in the 2012 Union Budget, he said such proposals should be scrapped to help the country tide over the present economic crisis.
A special Parliament session should be convened for the purpose, he said.
Finding fault with the white paper released by the Centre on black money, he said "it was only an attempt to white wash" as it did not give information over who are the depositors and the promise of confiscating their ill-gotten wealth.
The names of all depositors in the Swiss banks be revealed to establish the innocence of late Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors issue, Reddy said.
CPI and other Left parties would conduct a nationwide campaign from July 1-30 in support of its demand for tabling the Food Security Bill in the next session of Parliament after consulting all parties, Reddy said.
Demanding that the criteria for determining poverty line be redefined in a rational manner, CPI and Left parties would organise "collective sit-in" from July 30 to August three in Delhi, he added.
Replying to a query on Presidential election, he said the party favoured electing a political, secular and honest person with "wide possible acceptability" as Rashtrapati.
Opposition leader and CPM veteran V S Achuthanandhan on Saturday visited late Revolutionary Marxist Party leader TP Chandrasekharan's house at Onchiyam. The veteran leader was greeted with slogans praising him at Onchiyam. He met Chandrasekharan's widow Rama and held talks. The visit, in all probability, will accentuate divisions in the CPI(M). Achuthanandan visited TP's house soon after Pinarayi Vijayan and Poliburo member S Ramachandra Pillai met him at the Kozhikode guest guest.
Chandrasekharan, 51, was killed in Onchiyam near here Friday night while returning home on a two-wheeler. Chandrasekharan, once a prominent CPI(M) leader in the party stronghold Onjiyam in Kozhikode district, was expelled a few years ago after he fell out with the leadership. He later joined the RMP floated by CPI(M) rebels and wrested control of Onjiyam village panchayat, ending decades-old rule of the CPI(M).
There are 863 service voters in the constituency. Of the total electorate, 85,441 are women and 79,415 men.
The polling process in 15 booths will be webcast real time.
According to police report, 70 out of 143 polling stations have been identified as sensitive in the Neyyattinkara. It has been decided to install CCTV cameras in these sensitive polling booths.
Though the main electoral fight in Neyyatinkara, situated in the southernmost part of the state, is between R Selvaraj (Congress) of UDF and F Lawrence (CPI-M), the entry of former Union Minister and senior BJP leader O Rajagopal as BJP candidate has virtually turned the contest into a three- cornered one.
The poll results are crucial especially for CPI-M as it is their sitting seat. The Left party is also facing an image loss at present after some activists were arrested in connection with the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T P Chandrasekharan at Onchiyam in Kozhikode on May 4.
