thiruvananthapuram police resorted to the use of water cannon and tear gas to disperse protesters at several places as various political organisations on wednesday took out marches across the state alleging that important files were destroyed in the fire that broke out at the secretariat in the state capital many workers were allegedly injured in the police action the congress and the bjp their youthwing organisations womens wing organisations and the socialist democratic party of india sdpi took out marches at various places including to the secretariat here in protest against the left government the workers alleged that the fire last evening was a move to destroy the files related to the gold smuggling case the government maintained that none of the important files were destroyed as the state secretariat had a few years ago migrated all its files to the efiles system as part of the paperless secretariat initiative police resorted to the use of water cannon and tear gas at workers of yuva morcha the youth wing of bjp who tried to climb over the police barricade and enter the secretariat complex in thiruvanathapuram the bjp took out another rally which was followed by those of the youth congress the congress and the sdpi the mahila congress also marched to the secretariat trying to break the the barricades which were set around the complex since early morning youth congress activists burnt an effigy of the chief minister pinarayi vijayan at kannur and ernakulam sources said the youth congress activists also staged protests at various districts and there was a minor scuffle when police tried to arrest and remove them at kollam police said the yuva morcha march to kannur also allegedly turned violent injuring many leader of opposition in the state assembly ramesh chennithala launched a scathing attack on chief secretary vishwas mehtha and said he is now the avishwas mehtha the files were destroyed to save swapna suresh key accused in the gold smuggling case sivashankar suspended senior ias officer and former principal secretary to cmand the chief minister he alleged the government has appointed the chief secretary to defend them he is not vishwas mehta anymore butavishwas mehta when a fire broke out in the general administration department mehta chased away the media who came to find out what happened chennithala told reporters during a protest march in front of the secretariat chennithala also shot off a letter to governor arif mohammed khan urging him to summon the chief secretary and the chief minister to seek explanation over the gross negligence resulting in the fire meanwhile bjp state chief k surendran said the governments explanation on efiles was not satisfactory and the fire was preplanned most of the employees were quarantined and the government is yet to release the details of those who have turned positive and the number of staff under quarantine when the office was shutdown due to covid cases did the government inform the media surendran asked however cpim state chief kodiyeri balakrishnan