New Delhi: The fire in Antyodaya Bhawan in Delhi’s CGO complex on March 6 destroyed hundreds of files belonging to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DoEPwD). One CISF officer, M.P. Godara, lost his life in the blaze.
Yet the fire may suit the Centre, as a large number of audit files on the Accessible India Campaign (AIC) – a flagship project of the Modi government – were also incinerated.
Just last week, an entire audit team moved into to the fifth floor of the complex. Its files are believed to have been destroyed or damaged.
Officials from the department said that, following standard practice, audit officials conducted inspections in various offices. After a few transfers from the DoEPwD office, these audit officers moved in.
Chief Fire Officer Atul Garg confirmed that the fire started in one of the Ministry’s offices.
Officials were up against the wall
The massive fire at the start of an audit has alarmed many officials. “The entire section of Accessible India Campaign has been burnt,” one government official told The Wire. “The campaign was launched in December 2015, but was moving at a very slow pace. The department officials, especially the secretary and joint secretary, were unable to provide a credible explanation for this slow pace of work.”
The official said that in January this year, the cabinet secretary convened a meeting in which the department officials struggled to justify the campaign’s sluggish pace.
‘Sabotage possible’
“The Centre, too, was facing embarrassment due to this,” said the official. “This was a flagship programme for the Modi government. Just recently, the Centre started assessing what promises were made and how much has been achieved. But we all know that none of the targets of the AIC have been achieved.”
According to the official, all the audit reports seem to have been lost in the fire. “Most of the cost estimates, too, have been burnt.” Many fear this could be a case of sabotage.
Crores spent, but not one building fully accessible
According to the official, the audit had established that
• While over Rs 300 crore were spent on making government buildings accessible, not a single building had yet been made completely accessible in the country.
The best illustration is the Dr B.R. Ambedkar International Centre, which the prime minister recently inaugurated at 5 Janpath. “This building was constructed by the Ministry of Social Justice and the Central Public Works Department but is also not accessible [to persons with disabilities].”
• Inflated cost estimates of spending on lifts and other facilities. “Some of the buildings that the department claims were completed, do not even exist,” he said. “Many such cases were highlighted.”
• A large number of NGOs had received funds three to four times over, by changing their names despite giving the same address.
The cost estimates of the AIC have also been destroyed, he said.
“The whole campaign has been turned into a garbage bin. Over the last two years, officials in the Ministry were even scared of taking out a tableaux on the AIC, as they feared questions about their achievements.”
Besides the AIC, the official said the Deen Dayal Disability Rehabilitation Scheme could also suffer as its whole cell was gutted in the fire.