Unknown persons set fire to the zonal office of the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) here on Wednesday reducing to ashes many files and official documents. Even a few office vehicles have been totally damaged, BSE sources said.
“The miscreants after barging into the office asked us to vacate the office. They wanted to know when the agitation for High Court Bench is going on and all the Government offices are closed for the purpose, why the BSE office was opened. We tried to convince them regarding the HSC final examination and future of thousands of students of the nregion. But they were not prepared to listen to us. Hence, out of fear, we went out and they set fire to the files and many other important documents, including the students’ forms,” said Deputy Secretary, BSE, Suryamani Majhi, adding that the miscreants could not be recognised.
“Since we have no CC TV camera in our office, we don’t have any record of the persons involved in the incident,” Majhi said. “But a good number of forms of the students of Class X who will appear at the final HSC examination in February 22 have been gutted. It will create lot of inconveniences for us to enable the students to appear at the final examination which is just two months away,” he informed.
Since the BSE is preparing to conduct the final exam after two months, it is obvious that they have to undertake a Herculean task for it otherwise thousands of boys and girls will be deprived of appearing at the exams. Sambalpur MLA Dr Raseswari Panigrahi, Collector Samarth Verma, SP Sanjib Arora and all other senior officers rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation. Fire brigade also did its best to bring the fire under control. MLA Dr Panigrahi condemned the incident.
“We will try to identify the persons involved in the crime. Then action will be taken against them,” said Sambalpur SP Sanjiv Arora. He added that the police were yet to get a formal FIR from BSE officials.