[ET] Ragging may become a thing of the past

Link to report

15 Jun, 2008, 1017 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: First year students can hope to enter campuses without the fear of ragging if stringent measures suggested by an expert panel are implemented.

With the new academic session set to begin soon, various regulatory bodies like University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have asked the institutions to take necessary measures to check any form of ragging on their campuses.

While the UGC has issued a circular to all universities to instruct the colleges to strictly follow the measures suggested by the Raghavan panel, the AICTE has issued advertisements in newspapers for the purpose.

Besides warning the institutions that their approval would be scrapped if any case of ragging was reported, the AICTE has asked students, parents and the public to report to it instances of ragging in any form in institutions imparting technical education.

The Raghavan committee set up by the apex court to monitor the measures being taken to prevent ragging in higher educational institutions has suggested 'zero tolerance' towards ragging.

The committee, headed by former CBI chief K Raghavan, asked the statutory regulatory bodies to direct educational institutions to incorporate in admission notices appropriate messages in this regard.

Noting that ragging lowered the standards of higher education, the committee felt that release of grants under various schemes of the UGC should be linked with the compliance of Supreme Court directives by the institutions.