Students of ISM come out after their semester exam in Dhanbad on Thursday. Picture by Gautam Dey

Girls and boys cannot be seen together on campus

Girls must be inside their hostel by 9pm and boys by 10pm

Students must not drink

Dhanbad, May 5: The perils of youthful nature and co-education have dawned on Indian School of Mines (ISM) a tad too seriously, with college authorities deliberating on disciplinary action over a student clash in February and formulating a set strict behavioural guidelines.

The February 19 skirmish between ISM students of Sapphire and Amber hostels injured four — one Sanjay Meena seriously — and led to a six-month suspension of nine on April 23, but the entire incident, despite the filing of an FIR at Sadar police station by the injured youths, was kept hush-hush. Now, the lid is off, thanks to the set of guidelines — sent individually to parents by post and pinned on boards across the campus yesterday — that spurred some students to rip off the notices.

According to the new rules, no male and female student must be seen together along roads, near culverts, under trees and any restricted place on campus. Security personnel will monitor visitors. All boys would have to be inside their hostel by 10pm and girls, an hour earlier. Alcohol has been strictly prohibited. Any student defying these will face disciplinary action.

ISM, with 3,500 students, including 3,000 residential ones, has eight hostels named after precious stones. Of them, Ruby is the only girls’ hostel, as females constitute 15 per cent of the student population.

On February 18, after some heated words over which batch would go out to have tea first, some third and final-year students of Amber and Sapphire broke into Topaz and attacked second-year students. When the juniors planned to complain to authorities, seniors beat them up the next day.

A probe committee handed out suspension notices and also took a dim view of violation of campus rules during college fest Srijan, from March 1 to 4.

Dean of students’ welfare Sukumar Laik said the guidelines had been issued to prevent such incidents in the future. He added that all the nine suspended students had appealed to the administration for a second chance.

Institute registrar Col. (retired) M.K. Singh said suspension orders were issued against nine students on April 23 before semester exams. “You can’t behave as if you are in a metro when you are staying in Dhanbad. You have to be in harmony with the local situation,” he said.

The sharp polarisation of students’ views showed anything but harmony. A final-year student said there was “no harm” in rules. But a first-year student hailing from Chennai termed them “draconian”. “Born and brought up in a metro, how can we be forced to behave like orthodox people?” he said.