Nodal officers to collect info on safety steps taken in schools

BENGALURU: In the wake of increasing number of rapes in schools, the city police have appointed a police inspector in each division as nodal officer to collect information on schools and on whether the schools are complying with the safety guidelines issued by the police.

The city police commissionerate has over 3,000 schools under its jurisdiction. After the rape incident at Vibgyor High school in Marathalli in July, the city police had issued a set of guidelines to be compulsorily followed by all the schools.

“To ensure that no school is left out, a police inspector is picked and has been appointed as nodal officer in all the seven police divisions in the city. These nodal officers will coordinate with all the police stations in their divisions and collect information on all the schools.

Primarily, this is done to gather information on which school is complying with the guidelines and which is not. This also includes the number of students both girls and boys in each school.

The nodal officers have informed the school managements of the legal action they would face if they do not comply with the guidelines,” a senior police officer said.

ACP (Law & Order) Alok Kumar told DC that the inspectors appointed as nodal officers have already collected information from various schools on their compliance with safety guidelines. “Some of the schools are fully compliant, some are partially compliant, while a few are completely noncompliant. We will submit a report on this to the HC soon,” he added.