Mumbai University guards get security tips

According to the university sources,the seminar was conducted to equip the security personnel with adequate skills to avert unfortunate incidents.

The first session of the seminar was held on Saturday at the Fort campus. As many as 177 security personnel particiapted in the workshop. The second session will be held on February 28 in Kalina. The university had invited police personnel from the Protection and Security unit of the Mumbai police. This is the first time such a workshop is organised in the university. Last month,student activists of MNVS had vandalised property on the Fort campus after their demands were not met by the Vice-Chancellor. Also,MNVS activist Sainath Durge had walked into one of the classrooms posing as a professor in the examination department building at the Kalina campus where professors were evaluating the answer sheets and walked out with five answer sheets to expose ‘security lapse’. Following these incidents,the management council members had suggested ways to improve the security in the university. MG Pande,security officer,the Mumbai University,said,“The workshop was conducted to make our staff more attentive. We were told how to handle bomb scares,follow safety measures to avert incidents like 26/11. We were also trained to deal with morchas or attacks.”

The university is also planning to introduce a course on Homeland Security. A committee comprising ex- police officials,including Satish Sahani,IPS (retd.),V Balachandran IPS (retd.), Commdr (retd.) Hari Gokhale,Joint Police Commissioner (traffic) Sanjay Barve,Chief Fire Advisor MV Deshmukh,senior advocate Ashutosh Kumbhakoni,Professor AP Rana of MS University,Baroda,has been appointed to formulate the course of the syllabus. The panel will devise measures like installation of CCTV cameras in the campus. The varsity also plans to introduce special training for female students.