ISRO team visits Jadavpur University, takes stock of campus security after student's death

A team of the ISRO visited the Jadavpur University in Kolkata on Wednesday and took stock of the security measures on the campus. The visit came after Governor CV Ananda Bose, who is also the chancellor of the university, wrote to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to suggest security measures following the death of a first-year undergraduate student allegedly due to ragging.

The two members of the team visited different parts of the campus and the buildings, and discussed the security-related issues with varsity officials, JU's officiating vice-chancellor Buddhadeb Sau told.

"They deliberated on beefing up security with the use of remote sensing technology. They also discussed ways to prevent the entry of outsiders into the campus and monitor the movement of people so that narcotic substances are not consumed. They will give inputs to our security team," he said.


The ISRO team also discussed ways to prevent ragging in the hostels through surveillance but without intruding into the private space of students, Sau said.

"It is a data-based project in which experts from both ISRO and JU are participating. They will tell us about their observations and we will share ours with them. The university will take follow-up steps accordingly," he added.

The governor approached ISRO on August 24 to help the state-run university in curbing ragging cases by identifying an appropriate technological solution.

Multiple sources such as video analytics, image matching, automatic target recognition and remote sensing will be explored for developing a security system for JU, he had said in a statement at that time.

The death of the student after falling from the boys' hostel triggered a nationwide outrage, last month. Thirteen persons, including present and former students, were arrested in connection with the case.