By Faisal Fareed, TwoCircles.net,
Lucknow: For the students of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) the drama of Big Boss reality show will be enacted in their hostels and university campus. University administration citing security reasons has installed CCTVs in all boys hostels, university roads and gates to keep tab of developments. However, the inmates are annoyed terming it as an encroachment on their privacy.
Nearly 57 CCTVs with night vision facility besides camera recording facility have been installed on high towers specially erected for the task. The gadgets have a UPS attached to them to remain functional even during power cut. The cameras record all the entry-exit points besides the common area of the hostels. Several of them have been mounted at vantage position on university roads besides the entry gates. These cameras are centrally controlled at a control room set up in Academic Staff College of the university with experts manning them. A sum of nearly Rs 10 crore has been spent in the name of maintaining vigil in the hostels.
Meanwhile several students have voiced their concern over the developments. They term the installation of cameras as encroachment of privacy. “We are students and not Maoists that our movements are monitored. The university is turning into a police state. There is always an apprehension that somebody is watching you,” lamented Nabeel Siddiqui, a student of B.Tech. Civil Engineering, IIIrd year.
The students of Mass Communication have raised their resentment towards the development in their in-house circulation also. “The funds could have been utilised in providing us more facilities. Presently we have three computers per 600 students in hostels thus having a waiting list of several days. It was a better option than these cameras,” said Mohd Adil, a mass communication student.
Meanwhile, university spokesperson, Rahat Abrar maintained that the cameras in no way disturb the privacy of individuals. “They have been put in place for security reasons as per government guidelines. Several outsiders taking advantage enter the campus to create unrest and violence. The recent hungama on March 22 was an example of it. No student or teacher is affected by their installation,” he said.