Girl students who have for long put up with eve-teasing as their principals feigned helplessness, can now heave a sigh of relief.

District magistrate N. Saravana Kumar has ordered installation of complaint boxes in all Patna high schools and colleges for girl students to lodge their complaints.

“This is being done to control cases of eve-teasing inside and outside schools and colleges,” Kumar told The Telegraph on the sidelines of his weekly janata durbar.

“The complaint boxes will be in place by June 15. The complainant need not put her name on the complaint, which will be addressed to either me or the principal.”

Asked the reason for issuing such an order, Kumar said: “We know incidents of eve-teasing are taking place, but girls don’t always come forward to complain. So, I have decided to issue this order where the girl doesn’t need to mention her name in the complaint letter.”

Girl students need just to drop a hand-written or typed complaint letter mentioning the eve-teasing incident in brief so that the administration can gauge its seriousness.

Elaborating on how the system will work, the district magistrate said: “All the complaint will be forwarded to the district magistrate’s office for follow-up action.

“The principals are allowed to handle the matter at their level if it is possible for them. On the basis of the letter, I will instruct the police to take appropriate action as per law.”

The district administration is also taking the help of NGOs, social workers and civil activists to implement the order.

“Contact numbers of Women’s police station (9470001390) and district control room (0612-2219810) will be displayed on the complaint boxes. It will help them in a big way,” said Kumar.

Kumar said the administration was also aware that there were cases of girls facing harassment and eve-teasing in autorickshaws.

“Many a time, the district administration has received calls about autorickshaw drivers playing vulgar songs in their autos but nobody has actually come forward to complain. There are reasons why this happens. The victims do not have any option, they have no idea how to pinpoint the exact autorickshaw driver in whose vehicle they underwent their ordeal. But now, all autorickshaw drivers will have to paint the name of the autorickshaw owner, his mobile number and registration plate number inside the auto,” the DM said.

Should a girl undergo harassment in an autorickshaw now, she can note down these details on the basis of which a complaint can be lodged against them. “I have asked the district transport officer to cancel registration of autorickshaws that fail to follow this order by June 15,” the district magistrate said.

Expressing happiness at the district magistrate’s plan, a PG student of Science College, Priya Singh, said: “It is a good decision and I am very happy to hear of this order. The best part of the order is that we do not need to mention our names. Many times it becomes difficult to lodge a formal complaint against anyone.”

Asked how effective such orders can be, she said: “That is a different issue altogether, whether or not it will be effective. At least, the administration has given a thought on this and is giving us the option of lodging a complaint where earlier we had almost no way of complaining. “Even the proposal regarding autorickshaws is worth appreciating. I have faced this situation where I want to complain of harassment in an autorickshaw but do not have any clue how to pinpoint the auto or the driver.”

The principal of Sri Arvind Mahila College, Asha Singh, too, welcomed the order, “We are happy. Finally, we have a system to deal with complaints of eve-teasing and harassment. It will play an important role in boosting the morale of students. I thank the district administration for taking such a decision.”