Despite getting maligned by the Ruby Choudhary case, the authorities of lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (lBSNAA) have not yet done any course correction regarding security of the institute. The academy, which is reportedly in the cross hairs of the terrorists, still banks on its internal security and contractual guards. There is no biometric system installed at the main gate to ensure the security. Indo-Tibetan Border Police is entrusted merely with the security of the main entrance.
“The internal security of the premises is frightfully vulnerable in view of the contractual security guards which lack the spunk to ask the IAS trainees to identify themselves. Two things suffice for them — the probationers don the designated uniforms and they are acquainted with their faces. Taking them at their face value imperils security,” said a police official posted at the outpost outside the academy.
When this correspondent visited the academy on Saturday morning, he found the security as lax as it had been before the case came into focus. He found people attired in IAS probationers’ uniforms wandering around in groups and getting in and out of the campus with the guards keeping distances from them reverentially.
Choudhary had earlier said that Deputy Director, Saurabh Jain, had asked her not to worry about the checking at the entry gate. He was alleged to have said that nobody would check her identity card at the gate when Ruby insisted on getting a valid ID (entry) card.
Things are not better as far as ITBP’s role at the entrance is concerned. In the course of investigation, SIT has found that the ITBP personnel used to allow Ruby, who was having a forged ID card bearing her designation as sub-divisional magistrate, to get in and out of the academy without making efforts to verify whether the card was genuine or fake. There was no instance of her getting quizzed at the gate.
A police personal, who is deputed at the police chowki outside the academy said he had no idea how the IAS probationers’ ID cards look like. To bolster security, a non- reporting police post is functioning outside the academy. “ITBP personnel are on guard round the clock at the gate. Our role is thus subservient,” he said.
However, an observer said taking things that casually negates the very purpose the outpost was formed. “An air of indifference has become the norm of the academy as far as the security is concerned. Things would not change for the better unless all concerned with security shed their cavalier approach and turn alive to the gravity of their responsibilities,” the observer commented.
ITBP personnel were convinced that the Choudhary case had occurred due to complicity of the Academy higher-ups, said a police personnel while talking conversationally to the correspondent. “ITBP personnel posted here claimed that the Ruby Choudhary case would not have happened had they been entrusted with the internal security of the academy,” the policeman said.
leaving things to under-paid and sulky private contractual guards confirms that those running the academy could not care less about the security of the institute that is vulnerable to a terrorist strike. Even the ITBP, despite the boast, cannot shirk responsibility either. “Keeping things this way might be part of a larger scheme or it might just confirm their blatant nonchalance to security,” added the observer.