BHUBANESWAR/CUTTACK: Tension prevailed on the Ravenshaw University campus on Monday over suspension of hostel boardership of 10 third year under-graduate students for alleged ragging and indiscipline.
The university authorities on Sunday directed them to immediately vacate the East Hostel on charges of ragging by ordering the newly-joined first year students to stand in the hostel corridor and introduce themselves late on Saturday night. The seniors allegedly refused to let them go despite hostel authorities asking them to do so, the authorities claimed.
The issue, however, took a new turn on Monday when the freshers told the media that they had not filed any ragging complaint against the 10 seniors, and both the groups staged dharna on the campus.
The UG batch freshers arrived in the hostel on Friday. According to officials of the university, on Saturday midnight, security of the East Hostel informed the deputy warden Rabiu Ansari about students’ gathering on the corridor. Ansari rushed there to see 65 freshers being made to stand in a long queue by the third year students. When he asked them the reason and if permission was taken by the university officials for doing so, the seniors said it was a normal introduction exercise for the freshers.
“We cannot say that the newcomers were being ragged but asking them to come to the corridor at 12.50 am for introductions without the permission of vice-chancellor or hostel authorities is not allowed. Both the batches were asked to go back to their rooms but the seniors refused to let the juniors go and became aggressive.
Subsequently, chief warden Sudarshan Mishra and faculty members KSK Bharadwaj and Sitaram Mohapatra were called in. They also asked the students to go back to their rooms, but the latter refused and began verbally abusing them. The arguments continued till 5 am on Sunday,” said an official in-charge of East Hostel.
The chief warden and faculty members then informed the warden Sarat Rout about the incident, who submitted a report to the vice-chancellor Sanjay Naik and the 31-member anti-ragging committee of the university. The V-C convened a meeting, which decided to suspend the boardership of the 10 third year students and they were asked to leave the hostels immediately.
The third year students, on the other hand, alleged that the hostel authorities were deliberately trying to harass them. “None of the juniors have filed any ragging complaint against us. They had come to us on their own seeking help on various things,” said one third year student. Freshers corroborated his claim. “Since we are new to the place, we had gone to the seniors to know more about the hostel and university rules,” one of them said.
Meanwhile, university officials said the matter will be taken up by the anti-ragging committee soon and if behaviour of the 10 students is found unwarranted, the suspension on boardership will not be revoked.