Kolkata: Jadavpur University plans to appoint additional ex-servicemen on the campus and equip them with body cameras in a bid to beef up their security arrangements after the midnight violence and vandalism by a right-wing mob in the early hours of Thursday and again on Thursday afternoon.“I plan to appoint more ex-servicemen from the Rajya Sainik Board. There are at present 30 of them. I want to scale it to 50 or 60 ex-servicemen so that the campus is protected. They are retired servicemen and have more experience. They will be deployed in gates and other parts of the campus. I am also thinking of equipping them with bodycams. They had earlier demanded it. Now, I am seriously thinking about it. The security of the campus is of prime concern to me. I will also ask the state government for funds,” said vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee on Saturday.JU in Dec 2025 appointed 30 ex-servicemen and two supervisors at a monthly expenditure of Rs 7.6 lakh provided by the govt. After the ragging incident in 2023, the university installed 29 CCTV cameras and in 2025 an additional 50 CCTV cameras were installed at the main campus. Apart from this, JU has 55 security guards. A senior official said, “On any given day, 60 security personnels (30 ex-servicemen and 30 guards) are operational in three shifts. At night around 15 guards, including ex-servicement are present at 8-10 spots.”Bhattacharjee shared that he wishes to bring in some restrictions upon students regarding staying past 8pm. “On Thursday night, when I was leaving the campus after 10 pm, I saw a group of young boys and girls roaming. I got angry. I asked the guards to disperse them from the campus immediately. Ideally, day scholars should not stay past 8pm under any circumstances. Since a small section attend classes till 9pm for night shift, the night scholars must not stay past 9.30 pm. But I will have to discuss this with everyone before implementing this.”Presidency University implemented a strict entry policy from 2015 onwards by making ID card at the gate mandatory. There are extensive deployment of CCTV cameras on the campus and adequate male and female security guards. Any student, scholar or teacher, if required, to stay past 8 pm must take permission and security will be deployed accordingly. At RBU, students and scholars cannot stay past 7 pm and there are adequate ex-servicemen, security guards and CCTV cameras.JU Bengali dept professor and JUTA general secretary Rajyeswar Sinha said, “The security arrangements at our university considering its vastness, including the hostels, are not adequate. Along with deploying additional ex-servicemen, there is a 40% vacancy. That needs to be filled, otherwise making up the deficit is very difficult. There also needs to be restrictions on unauthorised entry of outsiders.”
