Labs, library and other buildings of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) have been completely waterlogged, while machinery and equipment worth crores have been severely affected due to continuous rains in Bengaluru. Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai paid a visit to the inundated campus, where employees said that precious samples collected from across the country have been laid to waste because of waterlogging.
"The research on HIV has been going on for 20 years. We have also started research on Coronavirus for two years. The samples were stored in a minus 80-degree deep freezer. Due to the heavy rains, water inundated the whole place. The power has to be cut and the temperature levels have come to minus 30 to 40 degrees from minus 80 degrees," employees explained.
"All the samples have been shifted to different freezers. But we have to now check each sample and see how many of them are still useful. The loss of samples would impact the entire chain of research, for example, if we lost a sample from the '90s, where will we find this person?" complained the employees.
Chief Minister Bommai took a tour of the institute, which was established by Bharat Ratna Prof CNR Rao, along with JNCASR Director GU Kulkarni. Bommai stated that special attention would be given to restoring the institution. "Contribution of scientific research is immense to society. I have been informed that, due to waterlogging, samples have been affected. I have sought cooperation from the institute to chalk out a master plan to mitigate the problem permanently. It is our duty to take measures to restore this institution," he said.