NEW DELHI: The Delhi University (DU) has asked its colleges to allow only ‘pre-registered’ students at cultural festivals and events and also instructed them to procure door frame metallic detectors from the police to monitor the entry at such programmes to deter unwanted elements.
The varsity issued a 17-point advisory on Monday 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 led to widespread protests by students who demanded the resignation of the college principal.
“Responsibility for events shall lie with the college/department authorities. They should act judiciously using due diligence while organizing programmes/events/fests. There should be a careful assessment of the capacity of the venue about attendees expected,” read the advisory issued by the 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 the 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 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.
“Before any such concert, or event, where outside students are invited, a proper Advance Security Liasoning (ASL) meeting in advance will 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.