The fresh guidelines issued by the Tamil Nadu government seeks to monitor all the visitors to educational institution campuses and further seek to employ real-time tracking and management of visitors. An electronic record of all visitors, including vehicle movement in the campuses should be maintained on a daily basis, it said.
According to the guidelines issued by the Higher Education Department issued on January 10, visitor passes must be time stamped and submitted upon exit. Secluded and unsupervised spots within the campuses should be covered with adequate lighting and sufficient numbers of CCTVs shall be installed and functional at all strategic locations with proper control room for analysis and monitoring, it said.
The universities and higher educational institutions should not allow anyone to stay inside the office complexes, laboratories, any other teaching and research related buildings during night hours. “Only hostels, living quarters and guest houses are meant for living / stay, not the other academic / research buildings,” it said. A ‘third party safety and security audit was be conducted by the universities on the ‘safety and security measures.
As there were multiple entries and exits existing in many universities, the multiple access points, multiple complexes and public roads traversing the University’s lands / campuses posed an “additional risk,” it said and further instructed that varsities must come up with clear strategy to limit the access points.
“Enforce and monitor compulsory wearing of identity cards by the staff, both teaching and non-teaching, students and scholars of the university inside the premises without fail..,” it said. The movement of outsiders such as electricians, canteen workers, plumbers, contract and construction workers, were to be regulated in the university campuses, by issuing proper temporary ID cards.
No un-authorised person / persons was to be entertained in hostels / in any educational institutions without specific permission. The Internal Complaints Committee constituted under Prevention of Sexual Harassment at workplace (POSH) Act shall function effectively so as to ensure Women’s Safety and Welfare, it said.
The Higher Education Department has directed the Commissioner of Technical Education, the Commissioner of Collegiate Education and the Registrars of all universities under its control to take appropriate expeditious action to scrupulously execute these instructions. They were to submit the action taken report in this regard.
Published – January 13, 2025 12:41 am IST
