In a first, HRD Ministry seeks CISF deployment on Visva-Bharati campus 

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry headed by senior BJP leader Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has written to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) asking it to permanently deploy a posse of its personnel on the campus of Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan.

This is the first time the Union government has officially pitched for deployment of paramilitary forces in its educational institution. Currently, no central university has paramilitary forces or even police personnel stationed permanently on campus.

The HRD is said to have told the CISF Director General Rajesh Ranjan that the cost of deployment will be borne by the University, The Indian Express has reported. (https://indianexpress.com/article/india/deploy-personnel-on-visva-bharati-campus-hrd-writes-to-cisf-6107013/)

The ministry shot the letter to the paramilitary force after Visva-Bharati Vice Chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty alleged that the private guards on the campus act as cohorts of the ruling Trinamool Congress party’s “local bosses”.

In his letter to the HRD, Chakrabarty has said that private security personnel “disobey” university’s security officer “with impunity”.

He cited the protest by students in May this year against the increase in the price of application forms. The students had held a sit-in protest, preventing faculty members and officials from leaving the university campus. The VC alleged that the security guards “remained silent onlookers”.