The CISF has written to the Home Ministry seeking directions on a request from the Visva Bharati University to deploy a contingent of the paramilitary force on its campus in Shantiniketan.
Currently, there is no deployment of CISF or any other paramilitary in any of the central universities’ campus.
The varsity’s vice chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty had recently written to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) alleging that private security personnel employed by the university owe their allegiance to “TMC local bosses”.
The letter was also marked to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, which has forwarded it to the paramilitary force, officials said.
In its response to the Visva-Bharati University, the CISF detailed its procedure for deploying a contingent, including conducting required security audit.
“The CISF has written to the university telling them about the procedure followed before the force is deployed. The force has also forwarded the request to us to seek further directions in this regard,” a Union Home Ministry source said.
The vice-chancellor had cited incidents of confrontation between the university administration, students and staff, in his letter to request for CISF deployment on the campus.
“The private security personnel currently employed by the university owe their allegiance to the TMC local bosses and, hence, disobey Visva-Bharati’s security officer with impunity. “There have been instances of students staging protest and preventing faculty members and officials from leaving the campus when the security guards remained silent onlookers and even created enabling conditions for the protesters,” the letter by Chakrabarty had said.
Visva Bharati is not the only university to have made such request.
In 2017, the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) had written to the HRD Ministry after protests on its campus turned violent.
While the BHU vice-chancellor was sent on indefinite leave, the request for CISF deployment was not taken up further.
The BHU matter did not reach a conclusion as the home ministry gave no directions to the force, sources said.
The CISF guards vital installations in the country, including the Delhi Metro, 61 civil airports and organisations in the aerospace and nuclear domain.