The Gourbanga University in Malda witnessed low attendance of students on Friday as private security personnel checked the identities of people entering the campus to keep away outsiders.

The development comes a day after a former student walked into the campus with a knife and attacked a female student before attempting suicide. Both of them are still critical and under treatment at Malda Medical College & Hospital (MMCH).

Though only a handful of students entered the campus on Friday, the security vigil was extraordinarily tight. Students were allowed entry only after scrutiny of their identity cards. Outsiders, who needed to visit the branch of a bank on the campus or other places inside the varsity, had to mention the details of their visit along with contact numbers at the gate.

The registrar on additional charge Biswajit Das, teachers and officials supervised the security check at the gate.

Vice-chancellor Pabitra Chattopadhyay also did rounds of the campus along with the registrar and spoke to students, employees
and teachers.

“The incident has taught us that you all should move around on the campus in groups and not alone. Any untoward incident could be averted with this practice. In case you are moving towards any office or building with very few people, keep the security personnel informed. In case of any problem, feel free to contact any teacher or official, including me,” the VC told the students.

Sources in the varsity said although the administrative and the academic buildings are under the surveillance of CCTV cameras, open areas of the varsity have no such monitoring. “There are around 70 security personnel who guard the campus. More should be deployed on the campus,” said a faculty member of the varsity.

The second-semester exam of postgraduation courses was peacefully conducted
on Friday.