The higher education department has asked state-aided universities to fill in a form to provide details of their anti-ragging mechanism in the wake of a realisation that most institutions have it on paper, if at all, officials said.
The government has sought from the universities the names and phone numbers of the chairpersons of the anti-ragging committee and the anti-ragging squad and the hostel superintendents. The phone numbers should include WhatsApp numbers.
They have also been told to provide details of the local police stations.
A first-year Jadavpur University student died on August 10 allegedly after being ragged by his seniors in the main hostel.
JU has been accused of not complying with basic anti-ragging norms of the UGC.
The death prompted the government to take stock of the availability of the mechanism on all campuses, said an education department official.
He said they want to have a database on the anti-ragging mechanism of all universities. “So we have asked the universities to fill in a form stating all relevant details,” the official said.
“We want to know about the police station so we can verify whether an institute has lodged an FIR upon receipt of the complaint in keeping with a directive of the Supreme Court.”
Buddhadeb Sau, officiating vice-chancellor of JU, had said last week the anti-ragging squad of Jadavpur University was not active.
The anti-ragging squad is supposed to run a vigil around the campus, particularly in hostels, to find out whether anyone is being ragged. It’s ambit includes investigating complaints of ragging and forwarding the findings to the anti-ragging committee.
“The committee decides the quantum of punishment if the complaints are found to be genuine. The committee also frames policies on running sensitisation campaigns against ragging,” said a JU official.
Sau had said last Friday: “It is clear that whatever mechanism we had in place was not sufficient…. This much I know that the anti-ragging squad was asked not to work.”
An education department official said they need to know who are the functionaries of the anti-ragging bodies in the universities. “In case of dereliction of duty, as seems to be the case with the JU incident, we can directly contact the office-bearers to check facts,” he said.
The Supreme Court had in an order in May 2007 said: “Any failure on the part of the institutional authority or negligence or deliberate delay in lodging the FIR with the local police shall be construed to be an act of culpable negligence on the part of the institutional authority. If any victim or his parent/guardian of ragging intends to file FIR directly with the police, that will not absolve the institutional authority from the requirement of filing the FIR.”