Security crunch ruins varsity's plans for 24x7 lab access

It was possibly with fond recollections of his own days as a scientist that Dr W N Gade vicechancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University SPPU announced early this year that the varsity would keep its 80 science laboratories open round the clock to promote research culture and uninterrupted work But the truth is with half its security force missing the university is hardly up to the task of ensuring safety for the students who choose to work lateThe university had announced in January that it would keep its science labs open round the clock but has so far failed to live up to its promise File picOn January 6 midday had reported the VCrsquos popular decision to provide roundtheclock access to the science labs on campus 24x7 science labs at UoP to give research a boost to motivate doctorate and post doctorate students to concentrate on their projects without the hurdle of an official closing time Even then it was anticipated that the university would have to increase its security fourfold to be able to provide such a facilitymiddays report on January 6The university has about 80 research labs across all its scientific departments and ideally an equal number of guards is required to ensure adequate protection to the students and the equipment as well However for the past six months the university has had only half of the 250 security guards its needs across the campusIn fact according to the SPPU security officer M S Kedari there are barely 50 guards available to patrol all of the 411 acres of the campus at night Understandably the security force is overwhelmed and hardly capable of paying special attention towards labs that operate through the nightKedari said ldquoI donrsquot have the exact data on how many labs operate during late hours as till date I have not received any such proposal of providing security during night But in the current situation we cannot provide separate security guards for each and every department anyway However I can ensure one guard for a group of three to four laboratoriesrdquoMost departments decide individually whether or not to keep their labs open at night The Microbiology department was amongst the first to start keeping labs open till 10 pm The department made the decision as far back as 2013 allowing students more time to work at the science lab or use the computer labThe departmentrsquos students have been running the initiative on their own with the help of biometric technology synchronised with the labrsquos main door This ensures that the door can only be opened by an authorised thumb impression and at any point of time there is always a record of who is in the roomOther departments have also realised that they need similar plans to keep labs open till late hours if not through the night Dr D D Dhavale HoD of Chemistry department of SPPU said many research students in the department prefer to continue their research long after official timings and are allowed to work in the labs till 10 pmldquoFor several months I have been requesting the varsity administration to provide security guards as well as to close down multiple entrances to the department to ensure the safety of students who continue their research till late evening I know the financial constraints that limit roundtheclock security for the department But the university should at least ensure that there is a single entrance to the Chemistry department along with biometric thumb impression verification to ensure adequate safetyrdquo he addedldquoTo ensure the safety of students we have made it mandatory to work in groups and we strictly do not allow individuals to carry out research on their own It is also the responsibility of the concerned PhD guides to take care of their studentsrdquo Dhavale saidVarsityspeakSPPU registrar Dr Narendra Kadu said ldquoAfter the contract with the earlier security agency ended in March 2014 the varsity has been short of 125 guards Due to some technical reasons we were able to fill these vacancies earlier But now we have again floated a fresh etender and within a month all these vacancies will be filledrdquo Meanwhile Kadu recently sent out a circular intimating all research students that they would need prior permission from the concerned department authorities before they could conduct research activities after official timings ldquoCollecting data from students is a routine procedure to ensure their safety during night hoursrdquo he saidStudentspeakAnd how do the students feel about all of this A doctorate student from a pure science department said on the condition of anonymity ldquoAs we have specific deadlines to complete particular projects it is really necessary that we have access of labs 24x7 But we also want assurance of our safety I have never seen any security guard outside our department when we continue our work till late evening In such circumstances how can we stay through the nightrdquo