Puducherry: The Pondicherry University has committed to beefing up security across its campus to ensure safety of the students following a vicious attack against a first-year postgraduate student last Tuesday night. According to Tharanikkarasu, Registrar (in charge), of the University, the responsibility of security arrangements had been handed over to N. Ravikumar, an officer on special duty, vigilance and security.
“The students were demanding better security arrangements after an unfortunate incident happened. Even the High Court had intervened in the security issue. We held discussions with Ravikumar and asked him to make arrangements to ensure the safety of the students. As of now, local police are on guard outside both the gates, apart from the security personnel arranged by the university. We have also directed the security wing to be vigilant so that this kind of incidents will not be repeated”, said Tharanikkarasu.
On Tuesday night, a first-year PG male student of the university was abducted by a gang of four to a remote area of the campus. The student was allegedly sexually harassed by the gang and the assailants snatched his purse, cell phone and other belongings and demanded Rs 5,000. The registrar said that the university administration is cooperating with the police officials in the inquiry.
“Kalapet police had filed an FIR on the issue following the complaint from the student. The university had handed over the CCTV footage of the day, on demand from the police officials”, he told DC.
At the same time, the students who were demanding stricter measures to ensure safety inside the campus alleged that even after repeated incidents of attack on students, the security system is not working well enough. Sreejith J.S., secretary of the Students Federation of India (SFI), Pondicherry University unit, alleged that the university administration is cheating the students with fake promises each year when similar incidents recurr. He demanded the intervention of student council to make sure that the students are secure enough inside the campus.
On the other hand, Manish Mahapatra convener of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) alleged that the problem of security is due to the faulty administration. “The current administration is only working to help themselves rather than providing security to the students. This is the most insensitive administration, which Pondicherry University has ever seen. We request the Ministry of HRD to immediately intervene and appoint a regular Vice Chancellor for the university", he said.
