Lonavla police safety measures at schools, colleges

Pune: The Lonavla subdivision police officer has outlined several measures to improve campus safety for students in a meeting held last Thursday with school and college officials.These include compulsory character verification of all teaching and non-teaching staff, increased police patrolling around educational institutions, assigning police inspector-rank officers to supervise one or two schools and colleges to ensure accountability, and random weekly inspections, among other initiatives.With the one-week period now complete, police have begun inspecting schools to ensure compliance. According to Satya Sai Karthik, assistant superintendent of police of Lonavla Division, the primary goal of the meeting was to ensure proper coordination between the management of educational institutes and the police.He emphasized, "Every person employed in educational institutes needs to get a character verification." This includes teachers, non-teaching staff, and cleaning staff. Although the process may take more than a week, Karthik stated that they are giving the institutes some time to finish it.He also mentioned the implementation of an anonymous complaint box in every institute for students to voice their concerns, to will be opened every 15-30 days by a female police personnel.Karthik added that Nirbhaya teams will make frequent visits to schools, and they have identified grey areas where students may engage in inappropriate activities, such as smoking, and will increase patrolling there. "If discovered, we will counsel them and inform their parents," he said.The officer further instructed schools to install CCTV cameras on their premises and entry-exit points, as well as establish control rooms to monitor the campus. He mentioned that every police officer and personnel, from the rank of head constable to police inspector, will be assigned schools. With 75-80 institutes in their jurisdiction, each police staff member will be responsible for visiting the institute, interacting with students and staff, and submitting a weekly report. "The police have already started visiting schools allotted to them. After each inspection, police units must submit detailed reports to the SDPO office," said Karthik.Addressing the issue of drug abuse in Lonavla, a tourist destination, Karthik mentioned the Sankalp Nashamukti Abhiyan, which was started a year ago. While action is taken against culprits, the police also spread awareness about drug abuse through counselling and other programmes. "When it comes to students, we try for counselling and preventive action, especially in drug-related cases, as we do not want them to have a criminal record. Their parents will also be counselled," Karthik said, mentioning a tie-up with Muktangan in Pune for this purpose.