'Student' cops to help DU freshers

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 10. Posing as a student, a cop in plainclothes would be a friendly arm that freshers scared of ragging could find during their initial days at the Delhi University colleges this year as the Delhi police has put together a force under an Assistant Commissioner of Police exclusively for this purpose.

Keeping the minute details under wraps, the police is determined to prevent ragging from crossing legal limits. As per an assessment made by the police, ragging in hostels needs to be monitored the most besides the routine policing in colleges.

Thus, cops wearing outfits akin to students would be spread on the entire North Campus including the hostels. Going by previous experience, the police has identified certain vulnerable points on the campus where these cops in disguise would be posted for at least a whole month after the colleges reopen.

Unlike in other cities, ragging would not automatically qualify as an IPC offence here. According to a senior police official, a case would be registered depending on the kind of ragging a student indulges in rather than applying a blanket law on all.

This apart, University authorities have issued directives to college principals to set up committees in their colleges for monitoring ragging activities. A copy of the University ordinance which empowers college principals and authorities for taking action on students breaking the code has also been circulated to all colleges.

A joint control room comprising university officials, college principals and students will also be set up to deal with any excesses in the University. The Delhi University Students Union has also got in touch with the police to set up a control room at the DUSU office comprising one student and three policemen in each shift.

Further, there is a move to set up a joint action committee including the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime Against Women Cell (North), Ms. Varsha Sharma, as well as college principals and University authorities. The Committee will apparently be headed by one of the college principals. Apart from monitoring ragging, the committee would in particular monitor eve-teasing, a common grievance with first year girl students.

In keeping with previous years, anti-ragging squads have been set up at all levels by the University and police in tandem with each other. Taking this as an opportunity to build bridges with the freshers, many student outfits have also set up their own anti- ragging squads to monitor such activities on the campus.

Control rooms have also been planned on the South Campus with the police once again placing personnel in plainclothes. However, the deployment is not as large or planned as the one on North Campus. Since the number of students here were lesser and precedents of a situation going out of control being few, only an extra platoon has been deployed to assist the local police. The police post at Nanakpura would be temporarily converted into a control room.

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