New CUAP campus faces security challenges

Anantapur: Central University of Andhra Pradesh (CUAP) at Janthaluru, 20 km from here and spread in nearly 500 acres, is vulnerable to security challenges with the presence of 465 odd girls and an equal number of boys living in separate hostel blocks.

The university is not fully secured due to hectic construction activity in progress in the context of the impending inauguration of the first phase of Central university campus by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in early January 2025 or so. Besides, the university authorities are also expecting President Draupadi Murmu to inaugurate the university’s first convocation in January or February.

More than 200 workers are still working and have access to the hostel rooms of both boys and girls.

The State government, which was supposed to construct a compound wall along with handing over the land to the university in 2019, failed to complete the construction of compound wall. State authorities completed only 8 km of the compound wall and the remaining 3.5 km stretch is left incomplete. This made the university and it’s residents vulnerable to the intrusion of outside forces.

A girl complained to the police that a youth had intruded into the hostel and peeped through a bathroom ventilator on last Sunday night and when she raised an alarm, the youth flee from there. Police are enquiring and yet to establish anything.

While security issues are real because of the complex nature of the conditions involving the presence of 200 construction labour working, observers see a sinister design to tarnish the image of the party heading the Central government as well as that of the university Vice-Chancellor, who is credited with completing the phase one of the university buildings in a record time and has earned laurels from the Centre for unprecedented development of the campus in just two years.

In the past too, disturbances were created by vested interests, who provoked students to agitate whenever food was tasteless, or services were inadequate. Sources on anonymity revealed that anti-VC forces are also at work, who are envious of his good image and opposed to his re-nomination for the second term.

Speaking to The Hans India, Vice-Chancellor Prof SA Kori ruled out intrusion of outsiders as the incident occurred at around 9 pm on Sunday when all were awake and students taking a stroll after dinner. It could be a mistaken identity of a worker climbing down the stairs for that of an intruder, as many workers even late evening keep moving in the vicinity.

A section of the students to whom The Hans India spoke to, felt that vested political interests are trying to flare-up even minute non-issues into issues and disturbing academic peace. They see a leftist plot to tarnish the image of PM’s brainchild, the CUAP.