Power outage during President’s address: Odisha Guv seeks report from Chief Secy, MSCB University VC

A couple of days after Odisha witnessed an embarrassing incident following a power outage during President Droupadi Murmu’s address at Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo University (MSCB) in Baripada, Odisha Governor Professor Ganeshi Lal on Monday sought a report on the matter.

According to sources, the Governor has directed the Odisha Chief Secretary, Pradeep Jena, and the vice-chancellor of MSCB University, Santosh Kumar Tripathy to furnish a report on the incident within seven days.

It is believed that as the Odisha government did not take the matter seriously, the Governor himself took up the matter and sought a report from the two top officials, sources added.

Meanwhile, varsity VC, Santosh Kumar Tripathy said that along with the internal committee inquiry, he himself will launch a probe into the matter before submitting the report to the Governor and stringent action will be taken against those found guilty. 

On April 6, the lights went off for nine minutes during President Murmu's address at the 12th convocation of the MSCB University plunging the venue into darkness.

The snag at the high-security programme lasted from 11.56 AM to 12.05 PM. It happened barely a few minutes into President Murmu's speech, but she continued as the mike system at the venue was unaffected. The air conditioning system too worked normally.

President Murmu was heard saying that power is "playing hide and seek" and the large audience sat patiently to listen to her though nothing was visible.