Prevent ragging or face imprisonment: Haryana

 The Haryana government has implemented the “Haryana Prohibition of Ragging in Educational Institution Ordinance, 2012” to reinforce the anti-ragging drive. According to an Indian Express report, the state has issued directives to the heads of all educational institutions of Haryana to prevent ragging on their campuses, failing which they will face six months’ imprisonment, in addition to payment of hefty fine.

The Ordinance which came into effect from July 5 seeks to impose a fine of up to Rs 2 lakh in case of schools and colleges, and Rs 5 lakh in case of universities if they fail to abide by the orders. “An act of ragging will attract mandatory suspension of a student for at least two semesters or an academic year besides other punishments. A criminal case will also be registered against the violators,” Geeta Bhukkal, Education Minister told The Indian Express.

The heads of the schools, colleges or universities must ensure prevention of ragging on the campus. Moreover, students must also submit an affidavit at the time of admission to refrain from ragging. Moreover anti ragging committees will be deployed in all the educational institutions to ensure compliance of the ordinance. (Read more)

According to the Times of India, during June 2009 and May 2012, the National Anti-Ragging Helpline recorded the highest number of cases against ragging from Uttar Pradesh with 307 complaints. Registering 200 complaints, West Bengal comes second, while Madhya Pradesh comes third with 115 complaints. (Read full story)

Besides states taking up severe action against ragging, institutes like IIT Patna (IIT-P) endeavor to create a ragging free campus. IIT-P which introduced its first batch of MTech and PhD programmes from this year discourages ragging in any form.

According to IIT-P director Anil K Bhowmick, the new campus of IIT-P will be ready in two years. The campus will have world-class infrastructure, laboratories, central library, classrooms, sports complex and rejuvenation centre. Moreover, the institute aims to have 500 faculty members for approximately 5,000 students. (Read more)

Last year, IIT-P witnessed 95% placement for BTech students and the institute expects similar performance from the MTech and PhD students. IIT-P has international collaborations with the University of Houston, USA; Louisiana State University, USA; University of North Texas, Denton, USA, among others, where 15 to 20% of its BTech students find summer internships every year.

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