[Peninsula] VCs panel to check ragging

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Thiruvananthapuram • Kerala Education Minister M A Baby has said a panel of Vice-Chancellors has been formed to check the menace of ragging in colleges.

Baby’s announcement has come in the wake of repeated incidents, including a student’s attempted suicide after being tortured in the name of ragging by senior students.

Manu, aged 18, was found with slashed veins on the Veterinary College campus at Mannuthy in Thrissur last month. “I could not tolerate the humiliation”, he said.

Hailing from a poor family, Manu had great hopes when he joined the college. He is struggling to come out of the trauma.

The police arrested a senior student of a gang of eight in connection with ragging of a first semester B Tech student at the Cochin University of Science and Technology.

Four students, accompanied by parents, had complained to the police against the torture on the campus.

Five senior students of a private engineering college in Thrissur are under suspension. A civil engineering student in his complaint alleged that he was taken to a toilet and humiliated by his seniors on October 18, authorities at Vidya Academy of Science and Technology said.

Two senior students have been suspended from Amala Medical College in Thrissur and five others at Pushpagiri Medical College in Tiruvalla for inflicting mental agony on juniors.

The Minister said illegal hostels would be shut down. The State-level committee would monitor the affairs on the campuses.

The All India Council for Technical Education too has issued a warning that action will be taken against the managements of colleges from where cases of ragging are reported.