Varanasi: Heeding to the demand of thousands of protesting students and after discussions with divisional commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma and the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) administration, the IIT-BHU administration said that work on a proposal to construct a boundary wall around the institute for controlled access would be started soon.A massive sit-in and demonstration had started on Thursday morning on IIT-BHU campus by thousands of students against the sexual assault of a girl student by three miscreants on the campus on Wednesday evening.Steps to enhance security on campus were started on Friday. However, some groups on BHU hostel road and at its central office started protests against the proposal of boundary wall construction, while a group of girl students demonstrated at the university gate seeking justice for the sexual assault survivor on Friday evening.The sit-in was started by the IIT-BHU students after the girl lodged an FIR with Lanka police on Thursday morning, alleging that she was stripped and the assault was video-graphed by three accused, who fled the scene when the girl rushed into the house of a professor to take refuge. To pacify the situation, IIT-BHU officials as well as senior cops held several rounds of meetings in which assurances were given to the protesters for initiating measures to enhance security, like restricting movement from 10 pm to 5 am by putting barricades at specified locations, establishing integrated surveillance system (CCTV) with the support of local administration, deployment of additional security guards at sensitive places and others. However, none of these assurances could help in convincing the protesters to call off their stir. Finally, the commissioner held talks with the officials of the ministry of education, government of India, with a proposal of a boundary wall for the institute campus. Following these developments, the commissioner said that a joint committee of CPWD officials and IIT-BHU experts would be constituted with a task of surveying the institute campus for the boundary wall construction. The committee will submit its report in a week, said the commissioner, adding, the same report would be forwarded to the government for approval and funding. Thereafter, the protest by IIT-BHU students was called off on Thursday night. On Friday, additional commissioner of police (law and order) S Chinappaa and ACP Bhelupur Pravin Kumar Singh held a series of meetings with IIT-BHU and BHU officials including their chief proctors and finalised the action plan for joint monitoring of the institutes security round the clock, establishment of a pink booth, enhancing patrolling, maintaining proper coordination and others. On the other hand, some groups including activists of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad staged protests at some crossings on hostel road and also the central office against the proposal of boundary wall construction, terming it as partition of BHU campus.

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