Indore: MP is now No 1 in ragging

Indore: The tall claims made by state government of making higher educational institution campuses free of ragging fell flat after Madhya Pradesh toppled Uttar Pradesh to become number one in ragging in the country. So far this year, as many as 39 complaints of ragging have been reported in the state according to the complaints registered with national anti-ragging helpline of University Grants Commission (UGC).

This is the highest figure recorded from any state so far. The second highest figure of 37 is reported from UP followed by 23 from Kerala and 20 from West Bengal. Since national anti-ragging helpline was launched in 2009 following the Supreme Court directives, the UP has been leading in ragging cases. But now, MP has overtaken it.

“This is for the first time any state has left UP behind in ragging menace,” said ragging watchdog Pankaj Prajapati. Last year, MP with total 100 ragging cases had stood second in the country whereas UP with 143 cases had stood at number one position. Prajapati said the government’s apathy towards the menace is accountable for increasing number of ragging cases in institutions of higher learning in MP.

“There is a customary practice by the government of issuing instructions to universities and college to contain ragging cases. But no monitoring of ragging is being done at government level,” he alleged. Last year, the coordination committee – the apex body of higher education in the state has directed — universities to put strict measures in place for containing ragging. But no measures were taken and a proof to it is the ever increasing cases of ragging in the state.

Total 4973 ragging cases since 2009

The apex court had directed the Central government to set up some mechanism to check the menace in 2009. Thereafter, a 24×7 National Anti-Ragging Helpline was launched in June 2009 for providing immediate assistance to distress students. Since then each and every complaint of ragging is supervised and monitored by the UGC through the helpline. Since its launch, the helpline has received a total number of 4973 complaints with maximum number of complaints coming from UP (872), followed by West Bengal (581), Madhya Pradesh (538) and Orissa (391).