A vaccination centre at IIEST Shibpur has been shut down after the institute’s director allegedly misbehaved with those running the facility because they had asked his home help to produce the Aadhaar card, get registered and wait for the jab.

The director of the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Parthasarathi Chakrabarti denied the allegation.

“I have not misbehaved with anyone for allegedly harassing the staff (member) who works at my place (as the help),” said the director.

The vaccination centre at the IIEST, which had been administering jabs to residents of the campus as well as people living outside since late April, has remained shut for a week.

Officials of the institute were running the facility with the support of the Howrah district health authorities.

According to an IIEST official, a staff member of the institute who works as the help at the director’s bungalow went to the centre to take his second jab of Covaxin around 10am on May 28.

The official said since the help was not carrying his Aadhaar card, he could not be accommodated in the first batch of 10 persons let into the centre for vaccination. The document is a must for registration.

“By the time he returned with the document, the slot for Covaxin was over and that of Covishield opened. So, he had to wait till another slot of Covaxin opened, for which 10 more persons had to turn up. This took around two hours. Once the cook reported the incident to the director, he accused those running the centre of harassing his staff and threatened to close the centre,” the official said.

Denying the charge, director Chakrabarti said the vaccination centre had been shut for sometime as they wanted to streamline the crowd by opening separate centres for outsiders and campus residents.

“I have not misbehaved with anyone for allegedly harassing the staff (member) who works at my place (as cook). The staff (member) merely told me that too many people were gathering at the vaccination centre, triggering chaos. So I thought of taking steps so that the crowd could be managed and physical distancing and other safety protocols could be followed. The centre will reopen,”

he said.

An official attached to the office of the district’s chief medical officer (CMOH) said they would resume sending doses to the IIEST once the institute reopened the vaccination centre.

“They have suspended the operations because of some internal reasons,” he said.

In April, the primary healthcare centre on the IIEST Shibpur campus had been turned into a Covid care unit with beds, oxygen support and isolation facilities after several residents tested positive and had trouble finding beds in hospitals with which the institute had tied up.