BHUBANESWAR: Ahead of the Students’ Union polls , the Utkal University , whose boundary is porous, is facing the challenge of keeping outsiders at bay. Though security guards are guarding the two gates, several other places of the university are open for public due to lack of boundary walls.The institution spread over a sprawling 400-acre of land has no boundary wall on the sides of Laxmi Vihar and VSS Nagar. Most of the time intruders flee from the campus through these two passages after committing crime like stealing of bikes and creating violence during elections.Around 50 acres of land has been encroached by slum dwellers and some employees and retired staff of the university. The authorities cannot construct boundary walls in the encroached areas fearing backlash. Neither the state government nor the university authorities take any strong step to clear the encroachment and build the boundary walls, said a senior professor of this institution.Security guards have been deployed at main gate near Vani Vihar square and west gate on the side of Acharya Vihar. The security personnel normally conduct checks during the time of campus election. But they do not check visitors after election period is over.Though CCTV cameras have been installed at the main gate, west gate has no such cameras. Some of the CCTV cameras installed in the campus are not working properly. “If the authorities do not build boundary walls and clear encroachment from the campus, what is the point in installing CCTV cameras in the two gates,” said Tapas Ranjan Barik, a post graduate student.In January, students had nabbed an outsider who was misbehaving with the hostel girls inside the campus. “He had entered into the campus through the open sides of the campus. Security is a major problem in the campus,” said another student Pradip Mallick.He said the university had witnessed violence last year during elections. Non-students had attacked several students in the campus, he added.The security issue has become a headache for university authorities. Soumendra Mohan Patnaik, vice chancellor of the university, said they have written the state government to provide home guards or Odisha Industrial Security Force to guard the campus and important establishments of the institution. But the file is still pending with the government, he added.“Now we have around 35 private security guards in the campus. We will float tender for engagement of more such guards. We are also trying to install more cameras ahead of the union polls,” he added.Patnaik said the university has discussed with the higher education department, urban development department and other related departments to free the encroachment area and build boundary walls. “We hope the process will start soon,” he added.

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