Radiation case: Delhi varsity teachers seek independent probe

NEW DELHI - Teachers of Delhi University Friday sought an independent probe into the radiation leak in which one person was killed and seven people were affected in the capital. Any inquiry under the university administration will be an “eye-wash”, they said.

“An independent inquiry should be ordered into the matter and the vice chancellor should step down for enabling a fair probe,” Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) president Aditya Narayan Misra said.

He said the teachers would write to President Pratibha Patil, seeking a visitorial inquiry. “The president, as the visitor of the institution, should constitute a committee of experts to examine the case and fix the blame,” he said.

The radiation leak was reported from a scrap market in Mayapuri area of west Delhi a fortnight ago. Eight people were affected by radioactivity from Cobalt 60, from the university’s chemistry laboratory sold off as scrap, and admitted to various hospitals.

Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental apologised Thursday and took moral responsibility for the incident.

The university has set up a three-member committee to investigate the matter. The members are S.C. Pancholi, a nuclear physicist working for the Nuclear Science Centre, N.C. Gumar from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, and B.S. Dwarkanath, a biophysicist from Defence Research and Development Organisation’s nuclear research institute.

“Any purchase or selling off of equipment takes place only after his (Pental’s) due permission. His accepting the moral responsibility is not enough. He should resign immediately, or else his bosses in the HRD ministry should sack him,” said Misra.

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has issued a show cause notice to Delhi University and has asked it to suspend use of any radioactive material in laboratories. The university has been asked respond to the notice in two week’s time.