DU Advisory To Colleges: Allow only 'pre-registered' students at fests, get door frame metal detectors

NEW DELHI: Delhi University has asked its colleges to allow only 'pre-registered' students at cultural festivals and events, and also instructed them to hire door frame metallic detectors from police to monitor the entry at such programmes. The varsity has issued a 17-point advisory to colleges and departments for holding programmes, events and fests in which it has been enunciated that the responsibility for events will lie with the college, and department authorities and the college concerned will be solely responsible for any "untoward incident".

The university has also asked the colleges to hold an Advance Security Liasoning meeting with all stakeholders, namely fire, police, electricity and security personnel, college representatives, and event management companies. Notably, the direction comes after students of the varsity's Indraprastha College for Women (IPCW) alleged that they were harassed by "unknown" men during a fest on March 28. The incident had led to widespread protests by students who demanded the resignation of the college principal.

Also read | After IPCW fest ruckus, DU makes it mandatory for colleges to get police permission to hold fests

"Responsibility for events shall lie with the college/department authorities. They should act judiciously using due diligence while organising programmes/events/fests. There should be a careful assessment of the capacity of the venue about attendees expected," read the advisory issued by the Delhi University (DU). "Entry for events should be through pre-registration like on Google Forms with details of the event, that is, date, venue, and the expected number of participants, should be maintained and submitted to the police with a copy to other above-mentioned departments," it added.

The registration forms should include scanned copies of college ID-cards of the participants, the advisory stated. Information on the capacity of the various venues should be mapped and the total number of participants allowed should be by the available space, it said. The advisory has been prepared after a host of meetings with several university and college officials and the Delhi Police. The guidelines were prepared in the wake of several all-women colleges witnessing harassment incidents during cultural festivals. The DU advisory also suggested that there should be multiple gates in the college and all gates must have working CCTVs. "All gates should have a PA (public announcement) system for any announcements.

Keeping in mind the number of their students, teachers, and staff members present at the event, the number of outside registrations should be kept below the venue's capacity," the advisory mentioned. No event will be organised without NOC from the police, it underlined. "Before any such concert, or event, where outside students are invited, proper Advance Security Liasoning (ASL) meeting in advance be conducted with all stakeholders..." the advisory said. The university has also advised colleges to install low concertina wires on the boundary wall to prevent outsiders from scaling them. "No such event will be organised without NOC from the Police. Before the event, there should be an assessment of the boundary wall of the college. If found, low concertina wires should be installed to prevent outsiders from scaling the walls," the advisory added.