Orissa orders departmenal probe into Eng. College ragging

Bhubaneswar, Sept 20 (PTI) Orissa government today ordered a departmental inquiry into the alleged ragging incident in a private engineering college on the outskrit of the state capital."A committee headed by Industries secretary will probe the alleged incidents of ragging at Gandhi Institute of Technological Advancement (GITA) where students of first year and fouth year clashed," Industries Minister Raghunath Mohanaty told reporters here.Stating that he had asked authorities to take stringent action against the students involved in the alleged ragging incident, the minister said that the college concerned would be held responsible if the ragging was proved.The clash between senior and junior engineering students took place yesterday over some dispute during celebration of Viswakarma puja on Saturday. Some students of fourth year allegedly passed comments on girls belonging to first year which led to a clash after which the college was closed sine die.At least 10 students including some girls, were injured in the incident, said Jatani police station inspector-in-charge K K Panigrahi."The students were taken to hospital,"Panigrahi said adding he was awaiting a formal complaint from the college authorities.The junior students had meanwhile given written complaint to the college principal alleging ragging by their seniors, police said.Meanwhile, the state's higher education department has reconstituted the state-level anti-ragging committee headed by the Governor M C Bhandare."Governor being head of the anti-ragging committee can exercise his powers to direct the secretaries/government officers/head of institutions to take necessary action, if he feels the steps taken are not appropriate," the notification issued by the higher education department said.Besides the governor, ministers of higher education, industries, health and family welfare, agriculture were members of the committee. Chief secretary, secetaries of different departments and vice-chancellors of all state and central universities were also members of the committee.Among its responsibilities, the state level anti- ragging committee is to issue suitable instructions to all the universities to be alert with regard to ragging, the notification said.