[NDTV] SC committee's suggestions against ragging

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NDTV Correspondent

Monday, January 15, 2007 (New Delhi):

Despite the ban on ragging, the torture of many freshers continues in the name of plain simple fun.

More and more students are being driven to desperate measures by the seniors.

NDTV has exclusive details of how the Supreme Court plans to pull the plug on ragging.

Deepak, a young student from Danapur in Bihar, dreamt of joining the school of planning and architecture in Delhi and after much toil, he finally managed to get admission.

But soon after he joined, ragging at the hands of his seniors made him wonder if it was worth pursuing his dream after all.

Possible punishments

It was to prevent such cases and worse that the Supreme Court set up a committee under the chairmanship of former CBI director, K Raghavan, to suggest ways to clamp down on ragging.

The committee has now come out with a strong set of punishments, including jail terms varying from six months to three years for those guilty of ragging.

The use of vulgar SMSs and MMSs will also be considered ragging. Students found indulging in ragging will not be given university degrees.

"Punishment is essential. This is a warning," said Rajendra Prasad, committee member.

"This is really wrong. We will take urgent action," said Arjun Singh, Union HRD Minister.

The Supreme Court committee has also suggested making it mandatory to have a psychiatrist in every college to deal with the problems of students.