Over a week after a research scholar from Panjab University (PU) was electrocuted to death in the South Campus following heavy rain, PU has announced that each department will form a departmental safety committee to carry out a safety audit of the university.
The initiative to carry out the safety audit had come from the Vice President of India, CP Radhakrishnan, who is also the chancellor of the university. While paying tribute to the deceased student, he had directed the university officials to carry out an overall safety audit of the university, following which the Dean of University Instruction (DUI), Meenakshi Goyal, had issued a circular.
The committee resolved that every teaching department should constitute a departmental safety committee comprising two faculty members, one staff member and two students, including one research scholar. The committee shall conduct regular inspections of departmental buildings, offices, laboratories and other facilities to identify and address safety concerns. The chairpersons of the departments shall be responsible for ensuring the implementation of appropriate safety measures and shall submit monthly action-taken reports.
The chairpersons of the departments shall also ensure periodic inspections, timely maintenance and prompt rectification of identified deficiencies. They shall also lodge complaints with the concerned offices for the timely resolution of maintenance and safety-related issues.
{{/usCountry}}The chairpersons of the departments shall also ensure periodic inspections, timely maintenance and prompt rectification of identified deficiencies. They shall also lodge complaints with the concerned offices for the timely resolution of maintenance and safety-related issues.
{{/usCountry}}The DUI has also circulated instructions from the UT administration for safe use of electricity during monsoons. This comes even as the varsity is set to reinstate the suspended executive engineer and subdivisional officer this week. Officials claimed that their involvement in the death was not specified in the postmortem report. They were suspended following protests by various student bodies after the incident.
A magisterial inquiry was ordered into the matter, which is yet to submit its final report. The deceased, Jyoti (28), of Mahendergarh in Haryana, was A PhD scholar of the department of microbiology. She was electrocuted near girls hostel number 8 while walking to her department from the hostel on July 28 morning. PU had also organised a havan and prayer meeting in Jyoti’s memory at girls hostel number 10 on Saturday.