A major controversy was sparked amidst a massive fire that broke out at Citi Mart store in New Market of Central Kolkata on Sunday evening.
A fire that raged for over five hours and engulfed an entire shopping mall left the Army officials of the Fort William worried. A team of Army officials, led by a senior officer along with fire fighting equipments were allegedly not allowed by the state government officials to douse the fire at New Market.
"We have rushed to this spot after a directive by the Fort William, Ministry of Defence to help state fire department officials in dousing the fire. This area falls in the Army jurisdiction but the state government is not allowing us to extinguish the fire," said an official of the Army, who refused to be named.
"We are far more equipped than the state fire department and could have doused the fire much faster. They have asked us to stay near Chowringhee and not intervene here," the officer said after withdrawing two fire tenders of Ministry of Defence Ordinance from the spot. Meanwhile, the mayor of Kolkata claimed that the situation was under control and help from the Army was not required.
"The Army tenders reached here after the fire was arrested. The state fire department is well equipped and the situation was not that grave that help from the Army would have been required," said Sovan Chatterjee, mayor.
The fire that broke out at the 2nd floor of this shopping mall, Citi Mart raged for over five hours.
The situation was brought under control by as many as 23 fire tenders with the help of three skylifts. A disaster management group team (DMG) and other fire department officials are carrying out the cooling-off process. Kolkata Police has deployed a drone to monitor the condition of the building from the top.
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