Taking a serious note of the murder of a seven-year-old boy (second grader) at a prominent private school in Gurugram (Haryana) allegedly by a school bus conductor, State Director General of Police (DGP) Anil K Raturi has released advisory to the school authorities on Saturday, asking them to ensure fool-proof security of the schoolchildren while they are in schools as the child had been found outside the school toilet, crawling and bleeding profusely, after being allegedly sexually assaulted by the bus conductor. The child had later died.
The State police chief has directed all the school authorities to complete verification of school staffers, including security guards, bus drivers and bus conductors, at the earliest. Besides, he stressed on CCTV cameras being installed at several places in the campuses.
The brutal murder of the child within the campus of a prominent school he was sent to study has sent shock waves across the country, with the stunned people calling in question the efficacy of the security arrangements made by the schools, including the premier ones. They say that the horrific incident has exposed how vulnerable the children are even in their schools.
Dehradun and some other cities of the state housing some of the most prominent schools of the country, DGP’s instruction to the school authorities to ensure fool-proof security of the students in the aftermath of the horrendous incident is understandable, say the observers. They add that police should have sent such instructions much earlier. “Many of the schools are bereft of CCTV cameras. They act as some kind of a deterrent as the criminals would think twice before committing a crime with their knowledge that such cameras would give them away,” says an observer.
State police spokesperson and additional director general of police (law and order) Ashok Kumar said that Uttarakhand being a hub of education, students from across the country and the world come here to study. “The school authorities must take measures at their levels to ensure fool-proof security of the students. We would not brook defiance of the instructions,” he averred.