VU installs electronic surveillance system

15 April 2013

initiative to enhance security for girl students
biswabrata goswami
MIDNAPORE, 15 APRIL: Vidyasagar University has introduced electronic surveillance through closed-circuit cameras to strengthen security in its campus areas with an additional focus on better security for girl students.
During the first phase of the initiative, cameras have been installed in the visitors’ waiting lounges in front of the office chambers of the Vice-Chancellor and registrar a few days ago.
An “office circular” (now in possession of The Statesman) without bearing any memo number was issued earlier on 9 April by the secretary to the Vice-Chancellor to all academic and administrative heads of the departments. According to the circular “...as per an advice from the West Bengal State Council of Higher Education an Electronic Surveillance System is being installed in the lounge in front of the office of the Vice-Chancellor and in the office of the Registrar initially, as a pilot project”.
Gradually, all strategic areas of the university will come under the said electronic surveillance system in due course, the order reads.
Explaining that the security systems will be upgraded in phases, an official said: “In the first phase, the cameras will be installed in places identified as 'strategic areas', like the entrance of the departmental areas and the science laboratories where students often work late hours.”
“The varsity also plans to go for e-surveillance where, in the next phase of upgrade of security systems, cameras will be placed on top of some key buildings on the campus. These will provide a wider view of the university's premises,” the official said.
Interestingly, neither the Trinamul Congress-controlled West Bengal College and University Professors’ Association (WBCUPA) nor the Left-affiliated West Bengal College and University Teachers’ Association (WBCUTA) protested the installation of electronic surveillance system in the varsity. No student or non-teaching staff association affiliated to the Trinamul Congress or the Left parties protested the move either.
A lone voice of protest, however, was heard only from the department of anthropology in which the teachers unanimously condemned the installation of surveillance system at the varsity and expressed their “worries” about the installation of CCTVs in the academic departments in a meeting of the departmental committee held two days ago.
Mr Kaushik Bose, a PhD from Cambridge University and a post-doctoral fellow at London University, and the head of department of anthropology at VU said: “The installation of electronic surveillance systems which are used to detect criminals is unthinkable in any university.”
Mr Bose has already sent a resolution adopted at the meeting to the Vice-Chancellor requesting him to revoke this move by the university authorities.