JU plans installation of CCTVs at Aurobindo Bhavan to strengthen internal security
Telegraph | 18 March 2025
The authorities at Jadavpur University are planning to install CCTVs at Aurobindo Bhavan, the varsity’s administrative headquarters, to strengthen internal security on the campus amid student unrest, an official said.
The university will again approach the state government so 35 additional contractual security guards could be appointed by the end of the month, said the official. JU had appealed to the government for the 35 guards last week.
A meeting will be convened soon to decide on Calcutta High Court’s recommendation that students produce identity cards at the gates while entering the campus.
JU vice-chancellor Bhas-kar Gupta, away from the campus over the past two weeks because of health reasons, is scheduled to resume work on Monday.
Gupta is supposed to hold a meeting with varsity officials to decide JU’s response to Kolkata Police’s proposal on setting up an outpost following a 2014 court order.
The VC is likely to write to the higher education department seeking permission to convene a meeting of the JU’s highest decision-making body, the executive council, to discuss the police proposal.
Last Wednesday, Kolkata Police wrote to JU registrar Indrajit Banerjee seeking a 4,000 sq ft space to set up the facility for maintaining law and order.
The VC is also going to write to the state government about resuming student polls, an issue that triggered the latest unrest on the campus.
“Installation of CCTV cameras is required at the administrative building to ensure the safety of students as well. The ongoing situation on the campus suggests so. We have to write to the state government so a meeting of the executive council can be called where we can discuss the proposals of Kolkata Police on setting up the outpost on the campus,” Gupta, JU’s authorised VC, told Metro on Sunday.
Campuses run by authorised VCs are required to obtain permission before holding a council or syndicate meeting.
The gates of the campus and the JU hostels were brought under CCTV surveillance after a first-year undergraduate student died in August 2023 following complaints of alleged ragging at JU main hostel.
CCTV cameras had been installed at Aurobindo Bhavan in 2011 by then VC P.N. Ghosh following complaints of confinement by the students.
However, the CCTV camera facility had to be dismantled following opposition from the students who objected to surveillance.
“We need to bring more areas on the campus under CCTV surveillance. The CCTV footage helps carry out fair probes into complaints of disruptive activities,” said Gupta.
A day after education minister Bratya Basu was allegedly heckled on the JU campus by Left and ultra-Left students over demands of campus election dates, Basu told media persons on March 2 that he would like to know from the VC where the university’s CCTV footage and internal security were on March 1.
Basu was heckled outside the open-air theatre, near gate No. 5, where he had gone to attend a meeting of a pro-Trinamool teachers’ association.
On March 1, the minister’s car, which was being physically prevented by protesting students from leaving the campus, allegedly hit one of them.
“If we had CCTV in the area, the footage could be crucial in unearthing the truth,” said a JU official.