[ToI] Five NRI students 'ragged' at SPA

Link to report

NEW DELHI: Even as the Supreme Court-appointed Raghavan committee has made ragging in higher education institutions a cognisable offence, its ghost seems to be haunting the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) with a guardian lodging two complaints of freshers being coerced into doing activities against their will by the seniors.

Krishna K Jha, local guardian of two NRI students from Bangladesh, claims to have complained to director KT Ravindaran and hostel warden Rajprakash that some first-year students, including his wards and three other NRIs from UAE, Canada and South Africa have been ragged regularly since the start of the session in the hostels on both the ITO and Maharani Bagh campuses.

However, the director has refused to acknowledge any kind of written complaint though Rajprakash admitted that Jha had made allegations of ragging.

"I had received an anonymous call complaining about this but not received any written complaint," Ravindaran said. When asked to elaborate on his comment, he retorted: "I don't want to talk to you."

But Rajaprakash said: "I received a complaint from Jha but we cannot take it seriously unless students themselves come forward. Even the freshers have refused any kind of coercion." In his complaint, Jha alleged that some senior girls "call junior boys and girls to their rooms and rag them all night".

Since the classes started on August 1, first-year residents in all three hostels — one for girls at ITO and one each for boys and girls at Maharani Bagh — have been allegedly subjected to ragging in different forms, Jha claims.

"In the first two weeks, freshers at ITO hostel were called for introduction in a room at night and were asked to learn the names of their seniors. They were not allowed to leave the room the entire night. seniors warned them of dire consequences if they talked about it," Jha said.

The complaints, copies of which are with TOI, further read that some first-year female residents from the ITO hostel were forced to go to Maharani Bagh boy’s hostel and were asked to "smoke, drink and do other activities against their will, and were forced to sign on a white paper that they went to the hostel willingly".

It reads on: "One day, students from Maharani Bagh hostel came in front of the women’s hostel and used abusive language..."

Talking to Times City, Jha said: "I had informed the hostel warden about these incidents on phone in August but no action was taken. Later, on September 4, I faxed a written complaint to the warden and the director informing them about the incident."

Jha lodged a fresh complaint on September 5 after a few more cases of harassment on September 3 and September 4 — details of which were given to TOI — surfaced against the seniors.

Jha’s second complaint read: "Students are afraid and shy to tell you about the situation...hope that you will take immediate action to stop ragging."

And when TOI approached first-year students at the ITO hostel, many of them refused to speak. One of them, on the condition of anonymity, said: "We were asked to introduce ourselves and were asked to learn the names of the seniors."

Another added: "We have to be friends with seniors as they would help us later."

sonia.sarkar@timesgroup.com