Kalamassery polytechnic men’s hostel to come under CCTV coverage from next academic year

The police maintain surveillance outside the men’s hostel of the Government Polytechnic College, Kalamassery, following the seizure of a ganja stash during a raid on Thursday night.
| Photo Credit: R.K. Nithin

The common areas of the men’s hostel of the Government Polytechnic College, Kalamassery, in Ernakulam, Kerala, will be covered by a network of CCTV cameras before the start of the next academic year.

The move comes in the wake of the seizure of nearly 2 kg of ganja from two rooms of the hostel during a police raid and the arrest of three final-year students in this connection.

“We could not mount CCTV cameras in the middle of the academic year as it would have led to protests over alleged intrusion into privacy. We will install CCTVs after the hostel is vacated at the end of this academic year and before the next academic year starts,” said Aiju Thomas, the college Principal.

The college has already been upgrading its independent CCTV units across various blocks on the campus. Since upgrading the CCTV network in the main building using high-definition cameras was costly, a tender was invited and work has been awarded. The work is likely to get under way in a week.

Accusations that outsiders, including former students, have been frequenting the men’s hostel, have received greater currency since the police took into custody two former students on suspicion of supplying the ganja that was seized during the raid. Though the hostel has two resident tutors, a watchman, and keeps the gate locked during the nights, it has not stopped the intrusion of outsiders into the hostel campus spread across around 50 acres.

Asked about the detention of two former students in connection with the ganja raid in the hostel, Mr. Thomas said that outsiders might be sneaking in through the back, taking advantage of the sprawling hostel campus.

In the current case, Aashik, one of the former students taken into custody, could not have made it to the college campus or hostel openly since he was expelled more than a year ago and was known to the faculty members, he said.

“We had deployed squads of faculty members across the college campus and the hostel campus in connection with the Holi celebrations. He could not have managed to enter the hostel unnoticed through the main entrance,” Mr. Thomas said.