The Government on Friday ordered a time-bound inquiry into the December 28 fire incident in Civil Secretariat Jammu.

Alok Kumar, IRS, Principal Secretary to the Government, Estates Department has been appointed as Inquiry Officer to enquire Into the fire incident on and he has been asked to submit a report to the General Administration Department within a period of seven (7) days, according to a government order, a copy of which lies with GNS. The Inquiry Officer has been asked to “clearly establish cause of occurrence of the fire incident; cause of delay in controlling/extinguishing the fire.” The officer has also been tasked with to clearly establish whether the fire safety audit of the building had been carried out as was ordered by the Government order (No.592-JK(GAD) of 2022) on 21 May 2022, or otherwise. He has also been asked to find out if the fire extinguishing equipment available on the premises was in “working condition”.

“The Inquiry Officer shall fix the responsibility for failure in activating response at various levels to control the fire in a timely manner,” the order added