Mantralaya fire: Maha Govt. to seek Nasscom, foreign experts' help to recover data

Mumbai, June 22 (ANI): Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday said that his government will seek help from Nasscom, cyber cell and foreign experts to recover data from computer hard disks damaged in the fire that broke out in the state secretariat yesterday.

"We will try to restore hard disks and recover data from them. We will seek help of Nasscom, cyber cell and even foreign experts," he said after a meeting of the state cabinet that was held to review the mishap.

Chavan rubbished rumours of files related to the Adarsh housing scam being destroyed in the fire.

"All the files related to Adarsh building are with the CBI already. So this fire will not affect their investigation at all," he said.

Chavan, who has announced a crime branch probe into the incident, said over 2.27 lakh files have been scanned.

"There may have been lacunae in fire safety systems, we will look into it," he said.

Chavan further said that fire safety norms could have been flouted at the Mantralaya. He said all efforts were being made to retrieve the data from computer hard disks that had been damaged in the fire.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister said the access to the fourth, fifth and sixth floors has been stopped till all structural repair is carried out.

He said that the state government ministers and senior bureaucrats have been asked to operate from their homes, while the secretarial and junior staff will be accommodated in the first two floors of the Mantralaya.

The death toll in the Maharashtra government secretariat in South Mumbai has now risen to five, as two more bodies were recovered earlier today.

Mumbai Police has registered a case of accidental death in the incident. The injured persons have been admitted to various hospitals.

The massive blaze at the state secretariat building has been doused after 12 hours this morning. The fire brigade officials, however, said the cooling operation will continue for the next two days. (ANI)