Besides intensifying CCTV surveillance, the Burdwan University (BU) is set to engage retired lady jawans and introduce a smart card entry system in the hostel zones and the executive council of the BU has approved the plan.

The students in the hostels, professors heading for their departments will be allowed to enter the premises only after punching in their smart cards. The BU authority said that the arrangement is proposed to check infiltrators.

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Forty retired jawans, as the new security programme proposed, will be deployed both in the girls’ hostels and in the administrative campus. The BU officials already have discussed the matter with the District Sainik Board on the issue, the officials said.

The student’s union has sounded positive in response to the smart card proposal, but the Burdwan University Teachers’ Association has expressed reservations. Bhaskar Goswami, secretary, BUTA said: “The universities are the open places for higher education where excessive surveillance is not a healthy culture at all and that’s why none of the universities have adopted such a practice.”

Goswami said: “Away from these, the University should stress more on academic excellence.” The BU meanwhile has prioritised the issue of security surveillance. In the first phase, smart cards are going to be introduced, besides, 20 female and 20 male retired jawans to be deployed. The vice-chancellor, BU, Dr Shankar Kumar Nath, said: “We must ensure foolproof security of the university office and the student’s hostels and for that the arrangements are beefed-up.” The BU currently has a strength of 163 security personnel deployed along its operating area.