Holi, the festival of colors, is celebrated with merriment with joyous abandon. The festival strengthens the existing bonds of love and friendship among people. At the same time people with long standing misunderstandings and animosities tend to forget and forgive each other by happily hugging each other and sharing sweets, thandaii or bhang-pakoras. The spirit underlying the show of affection through hugging is to forget the past-- Ho-lee, it has happened, it is now in the past which should be forgotten and buried.

With all the noble and religious traditions associated with the festival, quite often baser elements of human nature surface up during the celebrations and spoil the true spirit of the festival. The vandals and the anti-social elements try to molest women under the cover of  festival celebrations.  These kinds of incidents frequently occur in educational institutions with larger concentration of women students leaving deep scars on the minds of the victims.

The Delhi University administration has already made preparations to meet such unseemly incidents during the Holi day. The authorities have sought the cooperation of the Delhi police to crack down on these anti-social elements.

Accordingly, the university campus would be provided with extra police cover during the Holi-day celebrations. Barricades would be built around the campus to check the entry of the outsiders. There are also plans to deploy police force, especially women constables, in plain clothes. The identity cards of the entrants to the campus shall be checked. Playing of Holi has been banned during the working hours.

Said a senior member of the proctoral committee, ‘‘Barricades have already been put up near Shankar Lal hall and the school of correspondence. More barricades will be put up around the campus in the next few days.’’

Delhi University has set up a control room which is to be manned by the Delhi police.

The Delhi Transport Undertaking has been asked to ensure the safety of the women passengers in the busses. The police has promised to come down heavily on all those harassing the female commuters.

Students have already started bunking classes and the attendance has become thin during the past one week. Students have started assembling at the popular hang-out points in and around Kamla Nagar. The attendance is expected to fall further as the big day comes nearer.