Questions raised over nuclear scientists' suicide data
Source: Hindustan Times
The department of atomic energy appears to be underreporting unnatural deaths of its employees as data show a substantial number of staff suicides at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai over six years since 2008.
The DAE, the nations nuclear energy development regulator, said in a recent affidavit filed in Bombay high court that only three BARC employees committed suicide between 1995 and 2014.
The affidavit said the death rate from suicides in the premier nuclear research organisation was much less than the national average. The statement was in response to a petition demanding special investigation into unnatural deaths of nuclear scientists in India.
But a DAE confidential note pegged the number of suicides of BARC employees between 2008 and 2013 at 11. This note on unnatural deaths of its staff members was sent to the prime ministers office in December 2013.
Ashish Mehta, the petitioners counsel, alleged the DAE was deliberately downplaying the number of suicides by its employees to avoid inquiry. An investigation could throw up several findings that may be uncomfortable to the government, he said.
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Not only has our prestigious scientific community been plagued by suicides, unexplained deaths and sabotage but those incidents have gone mostly underreported in the country.
The petition said police havent found in most cases the actual reason behind the suicide and murder of people working in nuclear facilities.
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