Imphal, Aug 25: The office building of PHED at Lamphelpat was gutted completely in a devastating fire allegedly set by some miscreants last night at around 11.30.Apart from office accessories like computers, tables, chairs, photostat machines, type writers and important documents and files, a sum of around Rs 3 lakhs kept inside the office had also been reportedly destroyed in the fire completely.

The report of the fire was received by the Fire Services at around 1.05 am.

By that time, the fire had engulfed most part of the building which houses the offices of EE N Stephen and SO of PHED, Imphal West Division.

According to information culled from the site of the incident, the Chowkidar of the office came to know about the fire only after more than half of the building had been consumed by the devastating fire.

Public Health Engineering Department Workers and Employees Organisation, Manipur has strongly condemned the act of setting on fire the office of PHED Imphal West Division and termed it as an act of cowardice.

The perpetrators of such crimes are not only meant minded but also inhumane as they do not understand the service of the Department which has been providing safe drinking water to the people, he said, adding that the valuable service books of the employees which would be difficult to record again had also been destroyed the fire.

While appealing to all concerned to ensure such incident do not recur, the information and publicity secretary of the organisation I Rakesh Singh in a statement has also drawn the attention of the authorities concerned to book and punished the perpetrators of the crime.

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