Twin city women's hostels asked to ensure proper security

Cuttack: To ensure safety of women boarders in private hostels, the Commissionorate of Police on Tuesday ordered hostel owners of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar to pull up socks within two months.

In an order the commissioner of police R P Sharma said any place let out to accommodate five or more women inmates would be deemed as a private hostel and accordingly the owner will have to ensure round-the-clock security of it like strong boundary wall, grill gates, doors and windows to make it physically secure.

The hostel owners are allowed to engage private security guards from licensed security agencies to augment the security.

They are also asked to install adequate numbers of good quality CCTV surveillance cameras with recording system to capture the outside images of at least 30 meters around the hostel.

Due precautions should be taken not to breach the privacy of the inmates during the installation and operation of surveillance cameras , the notice issued by the police commissioner said adding that CCTV footages for a period of 30 days shall be preserved by the hostel owner and the same be produced before the police whenever required.

It is also imperative for the hostel owners to submit detail information of the inmates to the concerned police stations in requisite forms and also maintain inmate register and visitors register to guard against entry of unauthorised persons into the hostels.

To verify that all the security measures are in place within two months, section 144 of CrPC has been promulgated in all the women s hostels of the twin cities from January 12 to March 12, 2016, informed the Cuttack city DCP Sanjib Arora.