The main concern of VIce Chancellors of the Universities of Kelaniya, Sri Jayawardenepura and Colombo in requesting the Public Security Minister Tiran Alles to increasing security measures within university premises was mainly to curtail entry and use of drugs in the premises and safeguard female students from harassments, The Daily Morning learnt.
The Vice Chancellors of these three State Universities had met Alles recently in order to discuss the security issues prevailing in the Universities and had requested the Minister to strengthen the security level in these University premises.
Meanwhile, when contacted by The Daily Morning to query about the matters which were taken into consideration during the discussion, the Acting Vice Chancellor of the Sri Jayewardenepura University Prof. Upul Subasinghe said that he would refrain from commenting in this regard as now the matter is under the purview of the Ministry of Public Security.
Several attempts made by The Daily Morning to contact the Vice Chancellor of the Colombo University Prof. H.D. Karunaratna and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya Prof. Nilanthi De Silva in this regard proved futile.
Speaking at a press conference held last week at the Ministry, Alles said that he had ordered the Police Department to strengthen the security around the premises of the Colombo, Sri Jayewardenepura and Kelaniya Universities, following a request made by the Vice Chancellors based on certain issues concerning security.
It was reported that the use of drugs among University students was also discussed at length during the discussions. The Vice Chancellors had raised concerns about the use of drugs such as Ice (Crystal methamphetamine) among the student population. The law enforcement authorities plan to take countermeasures to mitigate the threat of drug abuse among students.
However, while the Inter-University Students Federation had claimed that the increased security was an attempt to suppress the student activists’ movement, the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations too had queried the need for the same as there was no major security threat within universities.