District-level panel to check ragging in Higher Educational Institutions

To take stock of each institution’s compliance with policies, court guidelines

Hyderabad: In a bid to curb the menace of ragging in higher educational institutions (HEIs), State governments have been asked to constitute a district-level anti-ragging committee, headed by district collector, deputy commissioner or district magistrate. Towards this, the University Grants Commission (UGC) recently addressed a letter to all State governments.

Additional district magistrate will be member secretary of the committee, which will also have the head of university, college or institutions concerned and the superintendent of police or district SSP as members.

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A representative of local media, district-level NGOs involved in youth programmes and student organisations have been included in the committee that will also have local police and administration as well as institutions to curb ragging.

In the letter addressed to chief secretaries of all States/UTs, the UGC said as per the Supreme Court orders, a district-level antiragging committee must be constituted.

These committees will be in addition to the existing anti-ragging committee and anti-ragging squad constituted by the respective HEIs.

The district-level committee has been asked to hold preparatory meetings during the summer vacation to take stock of the state of preparedness of each institution and their compliance with the policies and directions or guidelines of the appropriate bodies, university, state or central authorities and court guidelines with regard to curbing the menace of ragging.

The colleges have also been asked to step up antiragging mechanisms including implementing an antiragging committee, anti-ragging squad, anti-ragging cell besides installing CCTV cameras at vital points, organising anti-ragging workshops, and introducing the concept of mentor- mentee.

In a letter, the UGC has asked all the HEIs to mandatorily provide details of the anti-ragging committee and anti-ragging squads on their respective websites. In case of extreme ragging and suicide cases, university registrar and college principal concerned will be answerable to the national anti-ragging monitoring committee for the reasons of non-compliance of the UGC regulation for ragging, the UGC said.

Students in distress due to ragging-related incidents can call the national antiragging helpline 1800-180- 5522 or email at helpline<\@>antiragging.in. For any other information, visit website www. ugc.gov.in or www. antiragging.in.