Delhi Police Plans Series Of Initiatives To Make DU Campus Safer

To make the Delhi University campus safer, especially for women, the police plans to undertake a host of initiatives that would include seeking ideas from students about better policing and creating awareness about cyber crimes, officials said on Thursday. To build a better rapport, the Delhi Police also plans to hold discussions on student politics in the campus to help avoid untoward incidents, they said.

A senior officer said they want to give out a message that the police and students will work together for a safer and more promising university campus. As the DU reopened after a long Covid-induced hiatus, the north district of the force, under its University Intervention Programme "ADVIK", organised a pink cycle rally comprising 50 participants, including women officers along with female students.

The Maurice Nagar police station under which the North Campus falls, will be better sensitized about women safety. Since the university has reopened after the third wave, the police will also be focussing on Covid-appropriate behaviour, besides prevention of crime, officials said. In the coming days, the police along with university officials and student bodies, will be organizing rural sports games.

"We want to give them (students) a correct perspective, a good role model of what policing and citizens are all about..," officials said. The games would include tug of war, arm wresting and volleyball where the students will compete with Delhi Police teams and this will help build a better student-police relationship, officials said, adding they would also try to add other sports like weightlifting soon. Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi said the aim is to connect with the students for better police-students camaraderie and also seeking ideas from them for better policing so as to have a more peaceful and friendly neighbourhood.

"This is part of the new community and preventive policing technique," he said. As a step towards police-students camaraderie, the police will also organise career counselling sessions to help and guide students in making better choices along with other extra-curricular activities, the senior official said. "As the Delhi University has reopened, the north district has started "Advik", a university intervention programme where the police will pro-actively engage with the varsity at various levels by organising awareness programmes focusing on women safety, anti-ragging, street crimes, cyber crimes and general civil discipline," he said.

Anita Roy, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) said the idea behind the cycle rally was to raise awareness on women safety and send out a message that there is a need for a safe university campus for students. "We want to make them aware citizens. This is just the start. We will be doing a series of events including lectures, awareness building exercises," Roy said.  According to the police, the focus would be on having several interactive sessions with students starting from discussions on laws related to women's safety, exposing students to various career options and also, deliberations on student politics as several clashes have taken place in the last few months among different factions.

Senior officials opined that they do not want the Delhi University to become a place of conflict and instead want different philosophical streams to coexist. "Students should be aware and more responsible towards becoming better citizens. Cyber awareness will be the top criteria here and we will be working with all the colleges individually through their Unions and WDC cells to raise awareness about various online frauds," another senior officer said. Hoping that small steps can make a big difference, the additional DCP said the police will also be working on anti-ragging campaigns, will be mentoring and training students to fight for a crime-free campus and neighbourhood.

With PTI Inputs