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Kochi varsity wears deserted look as students, faculty try to cope with tragedy
Three students died in a stampede at Cochin University of Science and Technology in India during a tech fest. Classes have been suspended until 29 November.
Kochi:
On Sunday morning, when the IT block of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) should have been abuzz with students celebrating the final day of a tech fest being held after three years, the building bore a morose look.
Instead of students participating in exhibitions, games and hackathons, they dolefully lined up to pay tributes to three peers who died in a stampede on the steps of the university auditorium on Saturday evening before the beginning of a concert.
The mortal remains of Athul Thampi, Ann Ruftha and Sara Thomas, all of whom second-year engineering students at CUSAT, were kept for public homage in the IT block for nearly three hours before being taken to their home towns. State industry minister and local MLA P Rajeev and higher education minister R Bindu laid wreaths on behalf of the state government, while a host of MLAs, MPs and other political leaders were in attendance.
By Sunday noon, most of the department blocks of the university were deserted, with students staying at their homes and hostels. Though the walls and insides of departments bore graffiti, posters and decorations of the fest, they seemed meaningless. A kilometre away, the CUSAT auditorium, site of the stampede, was sealed by police, with forensic experts carrying out investigations. The steps leading down to the hall were littered with footwear of those caught in the stampede.
“The university joins in mourning in loss with their parents and family. All classes and examinations scheduled on November 27 stands postponed. A condolence meeting is arranged on Nov 27 10:30 am at the SMS auditorium,” CUSAT said in a statement. Classes have been suspended till November 29 for engineering students.
“I am shocked at the incident. My child is also of the same age,” said Dipak Kumar Sahoo, principal of the School of Engineering who was near the auditorium when the stampede took place shortly around 6:45 pm on Saturday. “We are teachers and they are like our children.”
Sahoo was walking back to the auditorium after parking his car a few metres away when he learnt of the stampede. “I saw students trying to stop some vehicles. I was told that there was some issue. It took some time to understand what exactly had happened,” he said. “We suspect that because of the sudden rains, people from outside pushed into the gates, which led to a stampede. But there were ambulances on standby, and within 10-15 minutes, most of the injured were rushed to hospitals.”
The autopsy reports showed that the cause of death of all four persons was asphyxiation, health minister Veena George told reporters on Sunday. There were also injuries to their neck and chest, with damage to their lungs.
The stampede took place before a concert by Bollywood playback singer Nikhita Gandhi, one of the main attractions of the fest. Though entry was allowed first to those who registered for the fest and engineering students, people from outside also tended to attend cultural shows of the university in past years, officials said.
Both the Kerala government as well as CUSAT Syndicate have formed inquiry commissions to probe the reasons that led to the tragedy, which claimed four lives and injured at least 56, of which two are in a critical condition. One of the deceased is a Palakkad native named Alwin Joseph, who had arrived in Kochi to visit his sister and came to attend the concert. His mortal remains have been shifted to Palakkad.
“It has been decided that a three-member inquiry commission comprising experts under the technical education department of the state government should probe the incident that took place on Saturday. Such incidents should not be repeated,” higher education minister Bindu said. “The commission will investigate how this incident occurred, whether there were any lapses in the organising of the programme and whether there were adequate arrangements and precautions in place.”
The commission will also have the terms of reference to frame guidelines on the precautions to be taken while organising programmes with large attendance on educational campuses. Such guidelines will be relayed to students across the state to prevent incidents like these in the future, she said.
The minister has demanded reports from the university’s vice-chancellor and principal secretary of her department on the incident. Kalamassery police has registered a case of unnatural death and a probe is ongoing.
