Student's death: Ex-JU VC says safety steps finalised during his tenure were not implemented

KOLKATA: Amid the uproar in Jadavpur University over the death of a 17-year-old undergraduate student, former vice-chancellor Abhijit Chakraborty on Tuesday said UGC guidelines that bars ragging and other inappropriate conduct on campus should have been implemented in the institute much earlier.

Chakraborty, who had to step down in January 2015 following an agitation by a section of students over alleged molestation of a girl by seniors and a police crackdown on agitating students who gheraoed the VC, told PTI, "I had taken steps to make the campus well-lit besides introducing CCTV camera surveillance, but some people were against such measures." "Keeping the campus well-lit was meant to prevent any law and order problems and to ensure that students, particularly girls, don’t feel scared. The VC can initiate such things on his own as per the university statute and there is no need to seek the consent of the executive council," he said.

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Chakraborty said a "wrong molestation allegation" (on the campus) was flagged to engineer trouble in the last phase of 2014 as it gradually took a violent turn threatening the safety of varsity officials. "During the reign of my successor, the steps almost finalised by me were shelved for reasons not known," he said. After Chakraborty's resignation, historian and former Calcutta University VC Suranjan Das took over and his extended term ended a few months ago. On police not being allowed inside the campus of an educational institution, Chakraborty said there is no rule to prohibit cops from entering an educational institute under certain situations, "at least police in plainclothes." "There is a provision in university statute (to call police)," he said.

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"The entire system, including the state-of-affairs in boys' hostel, needs to be kept under surveillance. The VC has the full power to act on these issues as he deems fit," he said. On the issue of installing CCTV cameras on the campus, Chakraborty said, "that should have been done. I have seen from experience that CCTV is the best for security of everyone." "Offenders violating campus discipline should be sternly dealt with as per law and prosecuted if required. He or she should be handed over to police considering the gravity of his/her offence. If that happens, incidents like the death of the minor student from Nadia would not have happened," he added.

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The newly appointed officiating vice-chancellor, Buddhadeb Sau, on Monday said CCTV cameras will be installed at the entry point of various gates on the campus and in hostel buildings soon. "CCTVs are already there in different departments like geography and mathematics and students are okay with that. We will have CCTVs at every entry point as well as in hostel buildings. We will maintain visitors' logbook in every hostel gate," Sau added.

Jadavpur University Teachers Association general secretary Partha Pratim Roy said, "the university does not have the funds to put the entire campus under CCTV surveillance. We think CCTVs can be put up at strategic points of the campus." The 17-year-old undergraduate student of the Bengali department died a day after he fell from a second-floor balcony of the main boys' hostel on August 9. His family alleged that he was a victim of ragging and sexual abuse.