JU ragging death: UGC bats for regular monitoring of students’ hostel besides university campus

Kolkata, Sep 4 (IANS) Besides the varsity campus, there should be regular monitoring of the students’ hostels, members of the University Grants’ Commission's (UGC) anti-ragging cell said at a meeting with authorities of Kolkata’s iconic Jadavpur University on Monday, in wake of amid the recent ragging-related death of a fresher.

JU insiders said that in the meeting, the UGC representatives pointed out that following the recovery of the fresher’s body on the morning of August 10, several incidents of utter mismanagement and lack of supervision surfaced.

In view of this, they have asked for regular monitoring of the affairs at the students’ hostels.

However, sources added that the JU authorities are quite skeptical on how far this suggestion for regular monitoring of the students’ hostels can be followed true to its spirit.

"Besides those staying at the hostels that are directly under the control of JU, several other students coming from outside Kolkata are staying in private hostel-type accommodations, close to the university campus. There can be similar incidents of ragging there as well. In such a situation, it is virtually impossible for identify all those hostel-type accommodations and conduct monitoring there," a JU faculty member said on strict condition of anonymity.

The four-member UGC team arrived at the university after the commission was dissatisfied with the three consecutive reports sent by the JU authorities regarding the ragging-related death of the fresher.

On Monday the UGC team had discussion with mainly the administrative and faculty officials of the university. It is also supposed to meet the different students’ representatives of the university in due course.