No takers for anti-ragging helpline

CHANDIGARH: With the supreme court���s swords dangling over the heads of colleges on the ragging issue, educational institutes have been jerked into upbeat mode to make sure that the menace is curbed entirely.
Though most of the colleges have turned their back on the anti-ragging helpline numbers that were earlier on their agenda, other measures such as formation of anti-ragging cells, sign boards displaying anti-ragging messages and signing of affidavits in the presence of parents are high on their list this time.
Almost all colleges in the city are decked with an anti-ragging committee. While in some institutes it would be governed by senior students besides teachers, many others are reluctant to involve seniors with a view that this step might give the students a flip, who might not consider the act so serious.
���Giving charge to seniors would add to the menace as seniors are the only ones only who promote ragging. In our college, vice principal and senior teachers would be on the committee,��� said KS Saluja, principal, GC-46.
However, MCM DAV College principal Puneet Bedi is of the view that it is better to warn students than to bear the consequences. ���Throughout the admissions, we displayed anti-ragging messages on LCD screen in the gymnasium hall.��� Moreover, keeping in view the seriousness of the matter, they decided to rope in parents also. ���We had separate forms to be signed by parents as well accepting the anti-ragging norms. Accompanying wards for admission was also made compulsory and children of those who failed to do so were given only provisionary admission,��� Bedi added, cautioning, ���their admission might get cancelled if their parents fail to turn up within 10 days of the process.���
While Government Home Science College is looking forward to an orientation ceremony to break the ice with freshers, it has also formed anti-ragging committees for college and hostels. ���Since our hostel is shared by girls of other colleges also, we have to be extra vigilant. We are thus aiming at concentrating juniors in a separate wing,��� revealed principal Rita G Singh. GGC-11 has been divided into zones for smooth functioning and extra vigil. Different teachers are in charge of various zones that will ensure tight security in the campus, said principal Promila Kaushal.
Many senior students are of the view that engaging in light ragging helps in breaking the ice. ���Too much of anything is not good but such strict rules have made it difficult for seniors to even interact with freshers in the fear of being accused of ragging,��� said Rohan Bansal, a final year student of GC-11.
PU students centre sees reformation
CHANDIGARH: Punishment has not only acted as reformation of the accused but also inspired them to generate awareness about the ill effects of ragging, for which they were suspended after being held guilty last year. On a mission to spread awareness among the students of Panjab University (PU) to not indulge in ragging, six students of the department of Indian theatre who were suspended last year on Monday afternoon staged a play on anti-ragging message at the students��� centre.
The students - Baldev Raj, Gurcharan, Vinod, Siddhant, Amritpal and Sunil - staged a performance, raising salient points of the menace, by depicting various scenes as to how seniors rag their juniors.
Meanwhile, these students urged the authorities to allow them back inside classrooms on the assurance that they would help the management to eradicate the evil and also on the plea that they have spent more than a year as punishment.