Civic agency to deploy home guards at its primary schools

Very soon, all primary schools in the Capital that are run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will have security guards during school hours.

Very soon, all primary schools in the Capital that are run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will have security guards during school hours.

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The initiative has been taken in the wake of recent incident of eve-teasing outside an MCD school in Kalkaji in south Delhi.

According to sources, the incident happened last week outside MCD's primary school at DDA Flats Kalkaji Nigam Pratibha Vidyalaya.

"The girl fainted soon after reaching her classroom. On gaining consciousness, she said some boys had stopped her while she was on her way to school and tried to misbehave with her. As the incident happened within the 100 metres radius of the school, the authorities called the police to intervene," said a senior MCD official.

In addition to this, the civic agency is also planning to recruit 250 home guards to secure premises of schools that are located in areas that have been identified as 'sensitive' as far as security is concerned.

Currently, guards are stationed in MCD schools at night to ensure no thefts or misuse of school property is reported.

However, there is no security as such during school hours. These guards on night duty are present in 1,729 MCD schools.

To ensure that any such untoward incidents do not recur, the MCD has fast tracked the process of recruiting security guards for its schools.

Mahendra Nagpal, chairman of the education committee of MCD, has also written to Delhi Police to deploy more PCR vans near MCD schools to ensure that the students are safe.

According to MCD officials, the 1,559 odd security guards will be recruited as employees within the MCD to ensure they get regular salaries. The schools that are considered unsafe are in Sangam Vihar, Ambedkar Nagar, Mayur Vihar Phase III, Pahar Ganj and Devli.

The civic body has identified 250 such primary schools and has decided to deploy home guards to secure them. Moreover, girl students of these schools would also be taught self-defence exercises.