Noida colleges to ’bounce out’ troublemakers

With admission season round the corner, institutes hire private security to keep rabble-rousers at bay

Noida colleges to 'bounce out' troublemakers

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Noida colleges to 'bounce out' troublemakers

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With admission season round the corner, institutes hire private security to keep rabble-rousers at bay
It's that time of the year when youngsters on the verge of adulthood (not to be confused with adultery) shed their inhibitions, and school uniforms and gingerly step into the real world, popularly known as college life. While institutes in Noida and Greater Noida are waiting for them with open arms, 'ammunition' has been kept ready to deal with mischief mongers, or overeager parents. Several colleges have hired bouncers and have instructed them to keep nuisance creators at bay during the admission season.

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At least a dozen management, medical and engineering colleges have already hired them. College authorities feel that during this time there is a heavy rush and sometimes they encounter individuals who try to pressurise and even threaten them for granting admission to their wards. "In the past few years we have come across similar situations where either the family or the students themselves try to secure admission through force. Sometimes the situation gets so ugly that they even try to manhandle staff members of the colleges," said the director of a management college, on the condition of anonymity.

"We have hired around five bouncers for the admission process which is scheduled to begin in the last week of May. Though Noida police should take care of this but sometimes we need to act swiftly. We will make sure that we don't take law into our hands," added an official of an engineering college in Greater Noida.

Power play
In 2009, Sharadha University in Greater Noida appointed bouncers to check ragging cases before the beginning of the new academic year.Dr Mugdha Singhal, a psychologist said: "Most of the students who try out this method are weak in studies and don't score well in their exams.

Also they are backed well by their families even if they do something wrong. They are influential people and think they can get away even after committing a crime. These people are hard to deal with as they are brought up a particular kind of environment."

The bouncers are hired on contract basis and charge anything between Rs 15,000-20,000 for the entire admission season, for two people. "Colleges have special demands. The applicants must be at least 5 feet 10 inches tall and also have an experience of around a year. Colleges have a very different crowd compared to the ones at discotheques or pubs. They also need to be dealt with in a different manner. So we have to take special care and instructions. Many institutes have contacted us and some have even made bookings," said Rohit Bhati, who runs a security agency in Noida.

Arm-twisting?
Last month Delhi University faculty members from several colleges claimed that the Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Prof. Dinesh Singh used force to keep them out of a general meeting held for discussing the syllabi of undergraduate courses. A Facebook post by a DU teacher read: "Here's photographic proof that bouncers were brought in to silence us. This was taken just after our protesting their presence and my argument with Prof Prasad, Dean, Faculty of Arts over this. After they were compelled to fall back, they stood by waiting for his command, while we stoically refused to leave." "The V-C had called his security personnel in the meeting so that if we raise our voices in protest, we could be thrown out of the hall," said Karen Gabriel, Professor, Dept of English, St Stephen's College.