Sambalpur: The fire in the BSE office in Sambalpur will not affect the annual High School Certificate (HSC) examinations scheduled in February next year, said senior officials of a three-member team of the headquarters office in Cuttack. They had inspected the damage in the branch office on Sunday.
The team from Cuttack, led by the BSE Assistant Secretary Balaram Hota and two other members, Assistant Secretary Amar Behera and junior engineer Priya Ranjan Behera arrived at the BSE office here after receiving the preliminary report on the damage to the office property from the Deputy Secretary, Suryamani Majhi.
During the inspection, the team found office assets like steel furniture, tables and chairs and ceiling fans in the main hall unusable as they were badly damaged in the fire. The team also found burnt files pertaining to the forms and the fees submitted by the students for the forthcoming annual HSC examinations.
“We verified the extent of damage to the property including the files that had the examination forms and fee payment slips. This will not pose any problem for the students while appearing in the annual examinations as their names have already been uploaded on the BSE website,” Hota told mediapersons.
He also said that the books kept in the record room for distribution among the students of Class IX and X are intact.
“We will submit the final report on the damage to BSE secretary by December 26,” Hota added.
The incident had taken place in the afternoon on December 19 when some unidentified persons entered into the office at about 2 pm and asked the staff why the office had been kept open. Later, they asked the staff to come out of the office and set fire to some files and other equipment in an office room. The fire spread to other office rooms and destroyed several important files and office assets. Before leaving the office, the miscreants set fire to two bikes of the staff parked inside the office premises.
Following information, a fire brigade team rushed to the office and brought the fire under control.
