Delhi University’s Miranda House. (Facebook/Miranda House)Restricted entry at fests, no events without prior police permission and adequate volunteer deployment – these are part of the guidelines issued by Delhi University to all its colleges for holding events. The advisory was issued around two weeks after several men allegedly jumped over the walls of Miranda House during a Diwali fair to enter the campus by bypassing security.
The National Service Scheme (NSS) unit at Miranda House had organised a Diwali Mela on October 14 which was open to everyone with a valid student ID. While the college authorities said they had taken some precautions such as deploying some police personnel at every gate, they were overwhelmed by the large number of students from other colleges who turned up for the event. When security closed the gate to stop more people from entering the campus, several male students allegedly jumped over the college gates and walls to enter the campus.
The police registered an FIR in the matter and the college issued an emergency standard operating procedure (SOP) for events at the time, but now the Delhi University proctor’s office has issued guidelines to all colleges and departments for events.
They state that college and department fests “should not be opened for all” and that “only the entry of a few college/department students should be allowed”. They also state that entry should only be allowed for events after registrations against college IDs. The guidelines say that no events should be organised without “proper permission of police” or at least a day’s prior intimation should be given to the Maurice Nagar police station, in case of lack of time.
Colleges are also required to deploy volunteers at the time of events with police being notified about the number of volunteers. The university has told colleges that if any of the guidelines are not followed “then the concerned college/department is solely responsible for any untoward incident happened during any event organised”.