BHUBANESWAR : To address the rising cases of suicide among youngsters, the Commissionerate Police has decided to appoint a lady cop from each police station to act as a link officer and address psychological/legal issues faced by students in various educational institutions of the capital city.
The decision was announced during a programme, ‘Commissionerate Police - Student Connect: For Better Safety and Security of Students’, organised at the Police Seva Bhawan here on Thursday. This comes after two Nepali students studying in a private university here allegedly died by suicide in a span of three months.
The link officers will help address the psychological or legal issues faced by students, and offer assistance to them without needing their physical appearance at the police stations. Commissionerate Police’s IT and social media cell ACP, Suchismita Das has been designated as the nodal officer for the students in distress.
During the event, police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh asked the educational institutions to enhance CCTV coverage on their respective campuses. He also informed that self defence programmes will be organised in schools and colleges here to train the students to protect themselves from any potential harm or violence. This apart, awareness drives on cyber crimes will also be organised in all educational institutions, Singh added.
The first session on a series of such upcoming activities was also conducted on the day. About 170 female students participated and interacted with the senior officers. They also expressed their opinions to strengthen the safety and security of the women.
The city police highlighted the need for such interactive sessions and called upon the students to act as volunteers and report incidents of harassment without any fear. Additional CP Narasingha Bhol, DCP Jagmohan Meena and other senior officers were present.