President Draupadi continued his address despite the interruption. (File photo: PIB YouTube)
The power outage was confirmed by the Odisha Information and Public Relations (I&PR) Department
Baripada’s Maharaja Shri Ram Chandra Bhanja Dev University was struck by lightning on Saturday when President Draupadi Murmu was delivering a speech, plunging the entire auditorium into pitch darkness. There was a power failure for nine minutes before it was fixed.
However, the President continued to deliver his speech in the dark as the mike system at the venue remained unaffected. The air conditioning system also worked normally.
The power failure reportedly occurred shortly before the President was about to begin his speech.
The power outage was confirmed by the Odisha Information and Public Relations (I&PR) Department. “From 11.56 a.m. to 12.05 p.m. there was a power failure and the entire auditorium remained in darkness; Sorry for the inconvenience,” read the statement
University Vice-Chancellor Santosh Kumar Tripathi expressed regret over the incident and apologized for the power failure during President Murmu’s speech. He also said that a three-member panel has been constituted to probe the incident.
“I am extremely saddened and blame myself for the unfortunate incident. We are ashamed of the power failure. We will definitely investigate the incident and action will be taken against those responsible for the incident.”
An official of the university’s electrical department has been suspended.
On the other hand, North Divisional RDC Suresh Chandra Dalai chaired a high-level meeting regarding the incident and discussed the disturbance with the District Collector and Tata Power officials.
Meanwhile, Bhaskar Sarkar, CEO of Tata Power, North Odisha Power Distribution Ltd, said there was no distribution disruption in the hall and the glitch was probably due to some fault in the electrical wiring.
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