Education minister Bratya Basu on Friday said the state government will constitute a committee to look into complaints and grievances that have not been dealt with by educational institutions under UGC norms on ragging.
Basu told The Telegraph in a text message: “We are deeply concerned about the issue of ragging in higher educational institutions. At present, the higher education department is formulating a policy to bring out a notification after detailed introspection with the judgment of the Supreme Court and existing rules and regulations of the state.
“It will also lead to constituting a committee which will deal with any complaint/grievances that have not been dealt with previously by the educational institutions obeying existing norms of UGC regarding ragging.”
He said the notification would be issued next week.
An education department official said the death of Jadavpur University student Swapnadeep Kundu had triggered a fresh debate on ragging.
“After the death of Swapnadeep, students are coming up with accounts of what they had encountered in the hostel. This suggests that ragging happens. We have to stop it. So, the minister has spoken about taking steps,” the official said.
Following directions from the Supreme Court, the UGC had announced regulations to curb ragging in higher educational institutions. The regulations are binding on all higher education institutions.
“We will go through the UGC guidelines before coming up with our own. We forward central advisories to all institutions from time to time.... But it seems the institutions are not serious about implementing the guidelines. We want to come up with a
fresh notification. We plan to seek a compliance report from the institutions,” said an official.
Basu spoke about the notification on a day the UGC asked JU to find out if Swapnadeep was ragged and send a report.
The dean of students at JU, Rajat Ray, said an anonymous complaint was lodged with the UGC’s anti-ragging helpline following Swapnadeep’s death. “JU’s anti-ragging squad will carry out a probe,” he said.
The nine-member internal panel that JU constituted to probe Swapnadeep’s death met on Friday and recorded statements of some hostel staff.
“We are seeking depositions from those concerned. Based on this, we will come up with our report,” said Subinoy Chakrabarti, head of the committee.