JNU blackout: No supply issue from discom, no complaint received from university

While power went off half an hour before the planned event, those who tried watching the film on their phones or laptops were allegedly pelted with stones.

Highly-placed sources said the discom “supplies power only till the JNU’s gates”, indicating that their jurisdiction ends at the sub-station on the campus.

The sub-station comes under the jurisdiction of the university, and has a dedicated electrical department and engineers to look after any issues that may arise.

“JNU is a high tension (HT) consumer for the discom and the internal network, including the streetlights, within the campus is owned and maintained by the JNU authorities,” a source explained, adding that power supply from the discom side was “normal”.

Sources explained that the discom only gets involved if it gets a complaint from the consumer, which in this case is JNU. On Tuesday night, however, no complaint was made by JNU to the discom, sources said.

Another source said this was not the first time lights have gone off in JNU – alluding to the violence on campus in January 2020 where masked goons had gone on a rampage in the university and police had entered the premises.

Sources said that then, too, there had been no interruption in supply from the discom’s side.

A JNU Executive Engineer, when contacted, said there was an internal fault, but did not elaborate.

A senior JNU official claimed: “As per our knowledge, there has not been any manhandling by anyone and the electricity went out due to a general fault… Such instances have happened in the past.”

The campus has a BSES power distributor behind the university’s Tapti Hostel and an electrical substation.

“The engineering department of the university quickly swung to repair the fault and the power was back throughout the entire campus by around midnight,” said JNU PRO Ajit Kumar.

Meanwhile, the campus was uneasily calm. The main gate was surrounded by press, but no sign of a protest or unrest was palpable. Activities inside the campus have gone back to normal, faculty members said.

Police said that they have received a complaint on the incident of stone pelting inside the campus and relevant CCTV footage is being collected to identify the perpetrators.

Senior police officers said that a cross complaint has been filed by the students affiliated with ABVP regarding harassment and assault by students affiliated with the left organisations during the scuffle.

A senior officer said that the complaint is being probed.

A JNU faculty member said, “Only in the morning, the campus was surrounded by the press, by afternoon, things have gotten back to normal.”

ABVP president Rohit Kumar claimed that the student body was not involved in the power cut or the stone pelting.