UGC vs Universities: Cops on campus? No please

Hyderabad: Officials of Central and state universities in Hyderabad are not keen on having police patrolling in their campuses. Recently, University of Hyderabad students protested against police intervention in campus and against suggestion by the UGC that police stations be set up in varsities as part of its guidelines on campus safety.

UoH vice-chancellor, Prof R.P. Sharma said, “We have the Gachibowli police station near our university and do not see any need for having a police station on campus. The police themselves are also not interested in patrolling the university and neither did we ever invite them for the purpose. There is a road, which passes through university from main gate towards Gopanpally village, which existed even before the university was established. They just use the road for thoroughfare and do not patrol the campus.”

Another official from the varsity said, “Sometimes, lower ranked police officials unaware of campus culture get suspicious of students roaming in campus late at night and try to investigate, which irks the students. We have spoken with the Cyberabad officials on sensitizing them about university culture.”

However, as the number of political parties in the universities have multiplied over the years and with protests, sometimes purely for political reasons, becoming a regular feature, ensuring peace has become a priority for the administrations.

Along with this, with increasing number of outsiders entering and even staying in the campuses, security has also become a prime concern.

In this scenario, CCTV cameras have become an important tool. Osmania University has already sent a circular to all its campus and constituent colleges regarding installing of CCTV cameras.

OU registrar Prof. E. Suresh Kumar said, “CCTV cameras with voice recording feature will be installed inside chambers of all administrative heads. Normal CCTV cameras will be installed at certain location in the college corridors. In outdoor locations, CCTV cameras with day and night recording features will be installed. Next year biometric attendance system will be launched in a phased manner.”

Police intervention in campus is also being resorted to, an example of which is the EFLU where the police conduct regular patrolling. Campus disturbances were common about a year ago in EFLU but the situation has changed since then.

Senior university officials say that police intervention played an important role apart from CCTVs and timely disciplinary action. EFLU proctor Prof. Prakash Kona said, “CCTV and police intervention are not the only ways to maintain peace in campus but they definitely helped us in controlling some unruly students who had complete disdain towards authority and wanted to take over the reins of university administration.” If the protests increase, might attract control measures from university administration.