No radioactivity on DU campus, claims V-C

Pental refuses to resign, says decision up to government

Officials from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board scanned the campus. No radioactivity was found, Vice Chancellor Deepak Pental said here.

DU chemistry professor Ramesh Chandra alleged that nearly 20 years back, his colleagues in the physics department buried almost 20 kg of radioactive material in front of the physics department in north campus. He reportedly stated that some of that material could be uranium.

“There is no uranium in the campus. Twenty kilograms of uranium can run a power plant and is not needed in an university. It’s a completely false allegation, published by the section in the media,” Pental said, appealing to the media not to make public wrong reports that can trigger panic.

Asked whether he would resign from the post owning the responsibility, Pental said, he has already taken the moral responsibility and it’s up to the government to take any decision. “I sign so many files every day. I can not check the contents of each and every one,” he said.
Delhi University Teachers Association on Friday had demanded Pental’s resignation blaming him for the radioactivity leakage which lead to one person’s death due to radiation poisoning. However, Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal refused to make any comment on his removal.
DH News Service

UN atomic agency seeks info
The UN atomic watchdog on Saturday said it is seeking more information about reports of a radioactive waste scandal at the University of Delhi, with one person already dead from radiation poisoning, reports PTI from Vienna.
International Atomic Energy Agency spokesman Marc Vridricaire said the watchdog had become aware of the possibility of a serious radiation emergency at Mayapuri in New Delhi.

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) is currently investigating a claim that Delhi University buried radioactive material on its campus 20 years ago.
Local police also blame the university for dumping an irradiation machine containing radioactive Cobalt-60 pencils which ended up in a scrap yard in New Delhi, where it killed a 35-year-old worker and put seven others in hospital.