JAMMU, JUNE 9: Jammu University has constituted a four-member committee to probe a fire incident in the Examination Block of the campus, late last night.
 Though sources said that a good number of answer scripts of BA Part – 1, which were under evaluation, were damaged in the fire incident, officials maintained that the loss, if any, would not affect the declaration of the result.
 Officials said that the fire broke out, under mysterious circumstances, in the Evaluation Section (Hall no 113 Examination Block) carrying answer scripts of BA Part, 1late night.
 The fire was spotted by the JU security personnel, who noticed smoke emanating from one of the room in the Examination Block. A team of Fire Department rushed to the spot and had to break open the lock of the main gate to avoid further damage.
 Sources informed that when fire fighting team reached the spot, a locked almirah and a wooden rack was on fire with room filled with smoke. Firemen used fire extinguisher powder instead of water to avoid damage to the answer scripts. It took them about half an hour to doze the flames, eyewitnesses said.
 Sources further informed that the due to smoke, cover pages of some of the answer sheets have turned black with layer of charcoal accumulated over them and it will be difficult for the evaluators to read confidential details of the candidates.
 "Fire occurred in the examination wing of Jammu University last night and immediately it was extinguished by the fire brigade," the University said in a statement here today.
 "The fire was restricted to one steel rack on which some papers had caught fire. Prime-facie there doesn't seem to be any loss to answer scripts or other records in the evaluation centre," the release stated.
 Taking serious note of the fire incident, the University administration today constituted a four member committee headed by Director Distance Education Desh Bandhu Sharma to probe the matter.
 The high level committee has been asked to submit its report up to Wednesday, investigating the cause of fire and resulting losses, estimated cost of loss besides fixing the responsibility of the incident.
 JU authorities, however, maintained that the result of BA Part 1 will be declared within 15 days and stated that there was no major damage to the Answer Scripts of BA Part 1.
 When contacted, Controller Examination, Jammu University, Manoj K Dhar said, “As per initial reports, there is no loss to important documents or answer sheets in the fire incident. There were just few bills that can be produced again”.
 He added, “With in two days, the evaluation process of BA Part 1 will be resumed and result will be declared in time as evaluation is almost over”.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 9 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 9 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 10 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST