Chakraborty: Tough talk

Calcutta, Oct. 28: After a missive last week on ways to tackle ragging in colleges with hostel facilities, the higher education minister will tell heads of institutions about the plans afoot to put an end to the menace.

Satyasadhan Chakraborty will soon hold the meeting to underline the tough government stand. Secretary of his department Jawhar Sircar had sent a five-point instruction to all universities and colleges on steps to combat ragging.

Three incidents of ragging were reported from private engineering colleges in Jalpaiguri, Haldia and Kolaghat in the last three months. “It is unfortunate that despite repeated directives to the colleges, ragging still happens. We want to ensure that not a single case of ragging occurs,’’ Sircar said.

According to higher education officials, the plans include separate hostel accommodation for freshers. This would mean no fresher would have to share a room with a senior student. Introduction of night vigil systems in hostels is also on the cards.

Sports and cultural programmes, debates and seminars will have to be organised to bridge the gap between the seniors and the freshers, said the education missive. Voluntary organisations and NGOs would be roped in to devise ways to tackle it. “We will hold orientation programmes for the freshers and their seniors to build friendly relations, which will bring down the tendency to harm juniors,” said Amalendu Bose, the director of technical education.

Officials said the college authorities have been asked to hold regular meetings of the anti-ragging committees and submit a monthly report to the higher education department. Besides, the authorities would have to report to the department the steps taken to prevent ragging and improve students’ relations.

There are 37 private engineering colleges across the state and all have hostel facilities.

In the latest incident, Kaushik Das Mahapatra, a first-year student of the Institute of Engineering and Management, Kolaghat, was tortured by second and third-year students. The college has suspended two second-year and four third-year students for a semester examination for their involvement in the incident.

“We have punished the students involved in ragging in all the three incidents. We have put six students of the Jalpaiguri engineering college behind the bars and the process is on to suspend the hostel superintendent,” Sircar said. “But we do not want to harm careers. So we want to stop the practice by involving students and teachers,” he added. Sircar said the authorities of private colleges have been categorically asked to follow the government’s instructions and take steps to stop ragging.

The implementation of the West Bengal Prohibition of Ragging in Education Institutions Act, 2000, has not helped matters greatly. As per provisions of the Act, anti-ragging committees were set up in all colleges and universities but they lacked the teeth to put an end to the problem.