Mita Mukherjee

The University Grants Commission (UGC) on Thursday said it was not satisfied with the report submitted by Jadavpur University regarding the mysterious death of a 17-year old first-year student as it is “generic in nature” and the commission sought “documentary evidences” on 12 points to show that the institution had taken necessary anti-ragging measures as stipulated by it this year and also in the previous years to curb the menace.

The UGC asked the university to submit the compliance reports on the 12 queries for the current year within 24 hours and for the last five years within the next ten days.

In the second letter to the university after the death of the 17-year old first-year student last week , the UGC said that the response to the queries sought by the commission in the first letter did not contain specific details of what the university had done  to prevent ragging on the campus.

“….. The report submitted to UGC vide your reference letter No. R-PA/U-01/139/2023 dated 14 August, 2023 was examined and it was found to be very generic in nature basically mentioning therein mostly the reactive approaches adopted in the matter rather that proactive measures taken to curb the menace of ragging and therefore, the Commission is not satisfied with the report submitted by you…”

On August 13, the anti-ragging committee of the university submitted its report following the death of the first-year Bengali honours students less than a week after he joined the university. He was allegedly subjected to extensive ragging and died after falling from the second floor balcony of the university’s main hostel. He was found lying unclothed in a pool of blood with multiple wounds in front of the hostel.

The UGC in the second letter asked Jadavpur University to provide the details of the procedure followed by the university before allowing newcomers to join the courses and stay in the hostels.

According to UGC regulations on curbing the menace of ragging in higher educational institutions, the institutes are required to get a copy of affidavit signed by the applicant stating that she or he understood the provisions of the regulations and the punishment prescribed for committing the offence. Similarly, parents and guardians too are supposed to give an affidavit declaring that they understood the regulations and the punishments. The university has wanted to know whether these procedures were followed.

The UGC also asked whether an additional affidavit was signed by the deceased first-year student and counter-signed by his parents.

 Some of the queries sought by the UGC are telephone numbers of the university’s anti-ragging helpline and the numbers of other functionaries of the institute responsible to curb ragging on the campus and whether they were mentioned in the brochure of students’ admission, copy of the leaflet which are supposed to be given to the students as per the UGC guidelines containing telephone numbers of the head of the institution, warden, anti-ragging committee members, anti-ragging squad and the police officials.

The UGC has said that appropriate action will be taken against the university if it failed to send the replies to the specific queries within the specific period.

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