Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

University centre at Karyavattom burgled

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The inefficiency of the security system on the Karyavattom campus of the University of Kerala was exposed yet again as burglars made away with Rs. 10,000 in cash, a digital camera and an MP3 player from the Centre for Bioinformatics there on Saturday.

The break-in is suspected to have taken place early in the morning.

The police have registered a case and have launched an investigation.

The centre’s Director, Achuthsankar S. Nair, said here on Sunday that security personnel, on Saturday morning, found the main lock of the centre building forced open.

The burglars appeared to have entered the building by forcing another lock on a glass door.

“CDs were strewn on the floor and cupboards were found broken open. The burglars appear to have been after cash mainly, for even small amounts of cash kept in bundles were taken,” he said.

Following a similar break-in a few months ago at the building that houses the Department of Botany, the university authorities had posted two security men at the Botany block.

Vice-Chancellor M.K. Ramachandran Nair said it was not clear if the two security personnel were at their post on Friday night.

Dr. Ramachandran Nair said the university had discovered that security personnel were in the habit of “adjusting” their duty time so that they often worked 24 hours at a stretch.

“Once a security man works for three shifts at one go, he gets two days off. Naturally when a person works from say, 7 a.m. on one day to 7 a.m. the next day, he is bound to fall asleep during the night,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor has instructed that this practice be terminated, and from Monday, no security personnel shall work for more than eight hours at a stretch.

Following reports that some security personnel at Karyavattom come for the night shift in a drunken state and subsequently fall asleep, the two men who were supposed to be on duty on Friday night were taken for a medical test on Saturday afternoon.

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