165-year-old maps burnt

* BoR member rejects claims that Arbab govt records burnt

By Amar Guriro

KARACHI: The city’s records, some over a century old, were burnt in the fire at the Board of Revenue Sindh building early Thursday morning.

These records included 165-year-old historical and administrative records such as city surveys, maps, measurements, locations of all major arteries, small lanes, roads, temples, churches, mosques, graveyards, amenity plots, hospitals, government schools, public parks, railway tracks, tombs and shrines of saints, cow grazing spots, potable water ponds, government offices and all other places for which the government has allotted land.

“In the colonial era when Bombay (Mumbai) was part of Sindh, the British government directed for the first time for a city survey at the grass-roots level in 1843,” said an official who said he was not authorized to speak. “The survey was continued till 1911. During it, the revenue team measured every inch of the land of Sindh.”

This was a time when Karachi consisted of only seven dehs. Today the city has 92 dehs with 156 tapas, with a tapo being the smallest revenue unit. Tapas are combined to make a deh, dehs are combined to make a union council and union councils make a taluka (or town). A combination of talukas (or towns) makes a district.

There were also records of other cities in Sindh, said Syed Anwar Hyder, a senior member of the Board of Revenue.

An official of the city survey department said on conditions of anonymity that records of the land allocated during the tenure of former Sindh CM Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim were also burnt. This claim was rejected by Hyder.

When asked why such valuable material was kept in such a building, he replied that the records had been safe for a century and there was no reason to move them. He also rejected arson. “It could have been a short circuit, but we have yet to investigate that,” Hyder said. “It was a public holiday and almost all the offices were closed and only a few officials came in the morning to do some important work,” he said. “The fire broke out all of a sudden in the record room located on the rooftop of the office of the superintendent of the city survey.”


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Records go up in flames at Secretariat

By Faraz Khan

KARACHI: Important records of the surveys and land revenue department were destroyed Thursday after several government department offices, including the Board of Revenue building, were gutted in an inferno that erupted at the Sindh Secretariat.

The decades-old building was established in 1836, during the British government, and is located opposite the Sindh Home Department, a short distance from the Sindh High Court. A four-member investigation team has been formed on the directives of the Sindh chief minister to probe the incident.

Fire-fighting vehicles rushed to the scene and initiated the rescue operation. A number of Edhi and Chippa ambulances, along with police and rangers personnel, followed. Thirteen vehicles, including an automobile rescue unit and two snorkels, took part in the operation. The fire was finally put out by 2:19 p.m.

An official said that the building housed offices of the armed forces, social welfare, planning and development and revenue and stamps departments on its upper floor. Offices of various department wings, including a survey branch and the office of the IG of Sindh, were situated on the lower floor, he added.

Quoting Anwar Haider, a senior member of the central board of revenue, Preedy DSP Salman Hussain said that the offices were closed because of the holiday and the record room is usually closed as well. The DSP said that Haider claimed that a watchman told him at around 10:25 a.m. that smoke was coming out of the record room.

“We were informed of the situation at 10:53 a.m. via police helpline Madadgar 15,” said DSP Hussain. “Though, the fire had engulfed nearly 40 to 50 percent of the infrastructure when the fire department got there.”

To a question, he said that he could not say anything about the delay in communication because all the departments, including the police, were still engaged in rescue work.

Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Azhar Ali Farooqui said that fire incidents have increased in the last eight to 10 months. “Some of them were accidental but some have been suspicious. An inquiry team has been formed and I will also work on this case,” he said.

Chief Fire Officer Ehtishamuddin said that the building the fire broke out in was completely damaged. “If we were informed on time it would’ve been possible to save the important records, and also the building. But the department informed us 30 minutes after first information.”

To a question, he said, “It is not our job to find the cause of the fire; that is for the police to do. They were complaining to us that we got there late. But, I have the records of when we received the information.”