Telangana: Suicides put RGUKT-Basar in bad light

Established in 2008, the university now has 9,000 students including 5,000 girls. It saw over 20 suicides since inception.

Nirmal: Four students from Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technologies, formerly known as IIIT-Basar, have died by suicide due to various reasons including poor academic performance and fallout in relationships in the last 11 months, affecting the image of the institution.

Established in 2008, the university now has 9,000 students including 5,000 girls. It saw over 20 suicides since inception. The officials are taking a slew of measures to control the suicides. Caretakers and counsellors were recruited helping the students to share their problems. Security committees comprising retired army men, hostel welfare officers, security staffers were also formed.

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The then Collector Ashish Sangwan had instructed the authorities of the institution to submit a detailed report over the suicide of a student Buchuka Aravind (17) on April 16. He directed faculty members meet their students regularly, to strengthen the counseling wing and to conduct sessions at regular intervals. He asked them to encourage students to participate in group studies and to install CCTV cameras in the corridors of hostels.

He had also directed them to conduct sports and cultural programmes helping the students to overcome stress, apart from instructing the teachers to monitor the hostel from time to time. He underlined the need to keep the premises of the university clean and ensure food for students as per the menu prescribed by the government.

However, it is learnt that officials are not showing interest to follow suggestions and instructions of the Collector. Shortage of caretakers and counselors, harassment by faculty members in the name of discipline and time management, strict norms and lack of security committees, stress, personal problems are attributed to suicides of the students.

Veeranna, father of Deepika, who died by suicide in 2023, alleged that his daughter died due to negligence of the management of the university. He said that Deepika was a mentally strong girl and was not a timid one to end her life. Parents of the students found fault with the authorities for failing to prevent suicides.

People urged not to comment on suicide of student

Collector Abhilasha Abhinav appealed to people to abstain from making remarks on the suicide of a student of the RGUKT-Basar.

In a statement, Abhilasha urged the public not to make political and personal remarks against the suicide of Swathi Priya (17) until the investigation was complete. She stated that a case was registered and investigation was under progress. She added that a suicide note was also recovered.