JU stakeholders discuss measures to stop ragging

All stakeholders of Jadavpur University including faculty members, students and non-teaching staff on Friday held a meeting and discussed steps needed to be taken to stop ragging on the campus and hostels.

Kolkata: All stakeholders of Jadavpur University including faculty members, students and non-teaching staff on Friday held a meeting and discussed steps needed to be taken to stop ragging on the campus and hostels.

Officiating Vice-Chancellor Buddhadeb Sau told PTI that several proposals were made such as installation of CCTV cameras and beefing up security on the campus.

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Those suggestions will be examined, he said.

The meeting was held around a month after the death of a 17-year-old first-year undergraduate student who fell from a balcony after being ragged by seniors at the main hostel.

Spokesperson of SFI-controlled Arts Faculty Students Union Joyadrita said, “With the objective to have zero tolerance and zero instance of ragging, we want the university to reveal the content of the internal inquiry report on the boy’s death.” “We demanded that we need to have a say in the steps to be taken to eliminate the practice of ragging on freshers. We should be consulted while deciding on the installation of CCTVs at strategic points, to form anti-ragging committees,” she said.

The number of trained security guards on the campus should be increased but they should not be ex-servicemen as the campus is not an army camp, Joyadrita added.

Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) General Secretary Partha Pratim Roy said, “Our proposals include anti-ragging volunteers at hostels, having separate group counselling for the first year and senior students, to have a full-time official for night hours who can take quick decision about ragging and other security-related issues.” There should also be separate hostels for first-year students, he said.

He said JUTA supported the students’ demand for not employing ex-military personnel in campus security.

The vice-chancellor said the students urged the authorities to formally make a statement requesting the media not to “misreport, mis interpret and exaggerate” the JU incident on August 9, when the boy fell from the balcony, and his death the next day.

“I am communicating the same request to you. Please write as you deem fit, but not anything which may not be factual and may sully the image of JU,” Sau said.

The JUTA general secretary said another stakeholder meeting will be held after a week to see the progress in measures taken up as suggested.

The non-teaching staff of the university also took part in the meeting which was attended also by the Registrar and other officials.

The death of the boy, hailing from Nadia district, triggered a nationwide uproar. While the state child rights panel visited the campus, student bodies and political parties demonstrated near the university.