Apprehending imminent danger to life and safety of women boarders in private residential hostels, the twin city Commissioner of Police RP Sharma on Tuesday ordered hostel owners of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar to ensure adequate safety measures in the hostels within two months.
Any place let out to accommodate five or more women inmates would be deemed as a private hostel and, accordingly, the owner shall ensure round-the-clock security with strong boundary wall, grill gates, doors and windows to make it physically secure, said Sharma’s notice.
The hostel owners are allowed to engage private security guards from licensed security agencies to augment security. They are also asked to instal adequate numbers of good quality CCTV surveillance cameras with recording system to capture the outside images of at least 30 meters around the hostel.
“Due precautions should be taken not to breach the privacy of the inmates during the installation and operation of surveillance cameras,” the notice said, adding that CCTV footages for a period of 30 days shall be preserved by the hostel owner and produce it before the police whenever required.
It is also imperative for the hostel owners to submit detail information of the inmates to the concerned police stations in requisite forms and also maintain ‘inmate register’ and ‘visitors’ register’ to guard against entry of unauthorised persons into the hostels. “In case of any illegal or suspicious activities noticed inside the hostel, the same shall be reported to the police,” the notice said.
In order to verify that all the security measures are in place within two months, Section 144 of CrPC has been promulgated in all the women’s hostels of the twin cities from January 12 to March 12, informed Cuttack city DCP Sanjib Arora.