19 ragging complaints in new session

Investigation into 14 complaints is underway while four complaints have been closed with punishment handed out to accused students.
19 ragging complaints in new session
Updated on
2 min read

BHUBANESWAR : Efforts by the Higher Education department to uproot the scourge of ragging from campuses in Odisha seem to be yielding little result with freshers still being subjected to harassment by their seniors.

According to the reports of the University Grants Commission (UGC), in the last two months since August 1 when the academic session began, 19 complaints of ragging have been registered from higher educational institutes in Odisha. Of these, four are of serious nature.

Incidentally, 13 of these 19 complaints are from public institutions including Ravenshaw and Berhampur universities, Odisha University of Technology and Research and National Law University-Odisha. Investigation into 14 complaints is underway while four complaints have been closed with punishment handed out to accused students.

Overall, 307 complaints of ragging have been registered from institutions across the country since August till now and among the top 10 states that have reported the highest number of cases, Odisha figures at the sixth position. Above it are Bihar with 21 cases, Maharashtra (20), Madhya Pradesh (27), West Bengal (31) and Uttar Pradesh (51).

Academicians of government-run institutions said with the beginning of the new session, all measures are put in place for preventing ragging, be it counselling the students, publicising anti-ragging helplines on campuses, websites or regular patrolling of hostels by teachers.

Vice-chancellor of Berhampur University Geetanjali Dash said a separate hostel facility has been put in place for freshers as per the guidelines of the UGC and the anti-ragging committee is working to ensure that no fresher is harassed. The university expelled four PG students and fined 13 others last week for ragging juniors.

“However, the rising number of ragging cases are an indication that these preventive measures are not enough. The institutions should beef up security measures in hostels, particularly, during night and keep a tab on who’s entering or exiting the hostels to prevent such incidents,” said educationist Prasanna Acharya.

UGC operates an anti-ragging helpline (1800-180-5522) through which students can register their ragging complaints. Last year, the helpline had recorded 40 such complaints from Odisha including a death at Balangir medical college and hospital.

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